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Our analysis finds that public votes on salient policy questions (ballot initiatives, referenda) may act as a stimulus that engages the interest and attention of some peripheral voters (i.e. low turnout, non-partisan) when the stimulus of a presidential campaign is absent. Absent salient ballot measures, episodic independent voters may not be engaged in politics in midterm elections and may not turn out to vote. In high-stimulus presidential elections, peripheral voters do not exhibit greater awareness of and interest in ballot measures, we suspect, because the stimulus of the presidential election crowds out the effect of ballot measures on peripheral voter interest.
