So, in Michigan we passed medical marijuana use and allowed wider freedoms in stem cell research.

Nationwide, voters decided 153 ballot measures, including several with clear reverberation here in the Great Lakes State.

In 2010, Michigan voters will decide whether to try to rewrite the state Constitution for the first time in a half-century. Interest groups of many stripes would like a crack at rewriting all kinds of provisions. For example, in 2006, a bipartisan, volunteer group of distinguished citizens led by Grosse Pointe Attorney John Axe recommended 63 changes to the state constitution, including lengthening term limits for legislators and prohibiting non-residents from gathering signatures for petition drives.

Three constitutional questions failed miserably this year, as the National Conference of State Legislatures explained:

Fourteen states have automatic constitutional convention referenda in which voters periodically decide whether or not a constitutional convention should be called. Three states had automatic constitutional convention referenda on the ballot yesterday, and all three went down to defeat by wide margins. "Yes" votes were only 41 percent in Connecticut, 41 percent in Connecticut and 32 percent in Illinois. These results suggest that voters are not anxious to undertake wholesale rewrites of their constitutions and institutional structures.

Likewise, a proposal to repeal term limits in South Dakota went down in flames. The arguments for the proposal were almost exactly the same as what the Center for Michigan has heard regularly in Community Conversations across the state, as CNN reported:

Term limits "have decimated the legislative process," South Dakota state Sen. William Napoli said in fighting to remove the term limits ban after having helped institute it in the early 1990s. "I wanted to get the old guys out of there and get some fresh blood in. I wanted term limits worse than anybody... We've seen the results of term limits, and they have decimated the legislative process. They put too much power in the hands of the government, bureaucrats and lobbyists, and they've neutered the third branch."

Like many opponents of term limits, Napoli said they destroy the legislature's institutional memory by replacing experienced lawmakers with untested rookies.

"I've seen my legislative body turned into a circus, and I'm so sick of it. My heart is broken," Napoli said.