Posted By: Mark Thatcher

By Peter HendersonTue Nov 7, 12:23 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Votes on divisive issues from gay
marriage to stem cell research may decide control of the next
U.S. Congress if state initiatives bring out voters in some of
the tightest races on Tuesday.
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A host of hotly contested races for Senate and House of
Representatives seats are in states with ballot issues that
have become battle cries and may motivate potential voters who
otherwise might stay home.

"I urge Christians to make their voices heard," Jerry
Falwell, a prominent Christian conservative, said in a recent
newsletter on his Web site, exhorting followers to go to the
polls in states where amendments that would outlaw gay marriage
are up for consideration. "Let's get out and vote," he said.

Eight states will decide such measures on Tuesday.

Tobacco and smoking taxes, abortion, property rights and
minimum wage levels also will be considered in various forms by
a number of states.

Voters will decide 205 ballot propositions in 37 states,
according to the University of Southern California's Initiative
and Referendum Institute.

Control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs and
politicians have been using ballot initiatives as a calculated
strategy to get out the vote and to influence debates, said
Institute President John Matsusaka.

"They are actually trying to affect who controls the
Congress," he said, pointing in particular to minimum wage
raises promoted by Democrats.

In Missouri, one of the closest Senate races, a minimum
wage proposal is on the ballot as well as one on stem cell
research. Democrat Claire McCaskill supports embryonic stem
cell research while rival Sen. Jim Talent (news, bio, voting record) said he supported
some forms of research but not others.

"Where you have very closely contested races, as in the
House or Senate this year, ballot measures either through
turnout or affecting the issues people think about, could have
a decisive roll," said Stephen Nicholson, a political science
professor at the University of California, Merced, who has
written a book on the subject.

Some issues may have mostly symbolic value, however. Voters
in Nevada, home to legal gambling and prostitution, will decide
whether to de-criminalize marijuana.

"The proposed amendments would have no effect on federal
laws that prohibit the sale, possession, use and transport of
marijuana," a state voter guide adds.

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