Many have said that President Bush's 2004 victory was at least in part due to the large amount of ballot measures that preemptively restricted same-sex marriages or civil unions. In light of that, we may want to take a look at some measures on the ballot in the coming election. These measures in swing states may prove to be the difference between President McCain and President Obama.

Colorado has a plethora of measures on the ballot: 15 constitutional amendments and 3 initiative statutes will be voted upon in November. Of particular interest is the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative , which essentially bans affirmative action in public employment or education. Colorado also has measures on the ballot to define a person as any fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus, as well as issues relating toward mandatory employee-sponsored health care and union regulation . So many issues would seem to confuse who would be helped in Colorado.

Florida's only measure of any consequence is a ban on gay marriage and civil unions . Certainly this will work in McCain's favor as it did with President Bush.

Michigan has two measures on the ballot that will seem to help Obama -- a medical marijuana initiative and state funding for stem-cell research .

Last but not least, Ohio has several measures on the ballot. The only one that might help Obama is a referendum on payday lending regulations . The Ohio legislature capped all payday lenders at 28% APR. Lending businesses said that they would not be able to stay in business without being allowed to charge their previous rates (often approaching 391% APR) for these short-term loans. To remedy this, the businesses launched a referendum campaign to allow voters to vote on the issue directly.

Note: I apologize for all the links to Ballotpedia, but they are the only centralized reference I can find on this subject. Also, some of the issues are still awaiting approval, so this is only a tentative list.