I have been involved in the political ring for a long time now as a candidate for office, in referendums and a campaign manager for state of Illinois representative. There is an 86/14 rule that we should all be aware of and think about before entering the voting booth. Only 14% of the voters know who or what they are voting for, 86% vote for name recognition only. If you have a chance to work on a campaign sometime (do it) it is a lot of fun and you will learn a lot about how the system works. The first referendum I worked on was for a swimming pool for the park district in my home town. I was in charge of publicity but I was told not to advertise until the last two days before the vote was to take place because we did not want to get an organized no vote started. There is always an organized no vote! The elderly do not want to pay more taxes and they bond together to get the no vote out and they are also the ones that are the highest percentage voters. I also learned the best way to counteract a no vote is to give them two yes choices not just yes or no. Make one of them the one you want and the other one a poor choice that no one wants. We did this when we changed the form of government in my home town, others had tried in the past but were unsuccessful so when I presented my proposition for a city manager with council at large I did it at a press conference and angered the mayor so much that he had his secretary file for a strong mayor petition and we had a vote on which one instead of yes or no. The mayor was not doing a good job so voters did not want him to have more power. Result is we won. The voters had three choices they could have voted for the status quo but they heard only about the two choices and made their mind up before entering the voting booth.