SLEW OF REFERENDA AWAIT USA'S VOTERS

WASHINGTON - While voters decide Tuesday who will be making their laws in
Congress, statehouses and governors' mansions, in 41 states and the District
of Columbia they also will be making laws themselves.

There are at least 235 exercises in direct democracy on state ballots this
year, including bans on cockfighting; giving certain sick people the right
to smoke pot to relieve their pain; permitting assisted suicide; and
expanding the rights of gays.

''There is always a lot to watch and a lot of groups will be looking at the
initiatives and referenda to determine strategy in 1999 and 2000,'' said
Dane Waters, president of the nonpartisan Initiatives and Referendums
Institute in Washington, which monitors ballot measures across the land.

In all, 24 states, primarily in the West, allow citizens to place issues
directly before voters by circulation of petition drives. Elsewhere, the
state legislature must put measures on the ballot. Of this year's statewide
measures, 60 were put there by citizens and the remainder are the product of
state legislatures seeking voter ratification of their work, said Jennifer
Drage, a researcher for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Waters noted that this is the 100th anniversary of the citizen process:
South Dakota was the first to approve the citizen referendum in 1898; Oregon
was the first to use it in 1904.

Perhaps the most closely watched issue will be proposed bans on gay marriage
in Hawaii and Alaska, seen as a potential barometer of tolerance and a guide
to where the nation's mood is headed on the broader issues of homosexual
rights.

Those two initiatives were launched by conservative groups and are heavily
financed by religious organizations, including the Mormon church. That may
be a partial exception to the rule this year, though. While partisans of all
hues rely from time to time on the initiative process, this year it is
shaping up to be a tool of Democrats and liberals, said Waters.

For example, while Washington state voters will consider a
conservative-proposed ban on the issue of affirmative action and Coloradoans
decide whether to halt so-called partial-birth abortions, many issues
directly before voters derive from liberal activism.

That is in part because a majority of state legislatures are controlled by
conservatives, leaving liberals to push their issues directly, said Waters.

Among the products of liberal grass-roots initiative, use of marijuana as a
palliative by those suffering from disease will be on four state ballots. A
high-profile issue two years ago when voters endorsed the notion in
California and Arizona, the topic is now on ballots in Oregon, Nevada and
Alaska. Also, Arizonans will revisit the topic, perhaps reversing their
decision of 1996.

Animal rights activists are newly discovering the ballot measure as a means
to take political action. In issues closely watched as a measure of growing
animal rights consciousness, Alaska voters will be asked to consider a ban
on trapping wolves with snares; and Arizona and Missouri voters will weigh
bans on cockfighting. California voters will consider barring the trapping
of fur-bearing animals and human consumption or sale of horse meat. In
addition, Ohio voters will consider a ban on hunting mourning doves.

Many ballot measures deal with strictly local - and often non-partisan -
taxation issues such as a measure for school funding in Colorado, one to
finance high-tech research in Maine and one to finance cotton research in
Alabama.

In Michigan, the complex and emotional issue of physician-assisted suicide
will be before voters. The lawyer for notorious death doctor Jack Kevorkian
is a heavy underdog as the Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan.

Voters in Colorado and South Dakota are being asked to consider measures
that would curtail expansion of large corporate hog farms.

Religion in on the ballot in Alabama, where voters are being asked to
prohibit the ''burdening'' of the free exercise of religion.

Interracial marriage even is on the ballot in South Carolina, where a
house-cleaning item would square the wording of the state constitution with
prevailing law.

Checked-by: Don Beck