Previous work has shown young Americans are more likely to vote in states with ballot initiatives emphasizing issues they care about. However, past work examined only two issues salient to young voters—marijuana and higher education—and used aggregate analysis. Expanding on this work, we argue that individual values also play a role in this dynamic, as no age group of voters has monolithic values. The influence of initiatives on turnout should differ by the extent to which young individuals possess post-materialist values. To investigate the impact of post-material ballot initiatives, we topic code all ballot measures from each of the 50 states from 2010 to 2020 and use the CES to measure relative materialist versus post-materialist value systems among the American public and validated voters. In line with expectations, we find that post-materialist ballot measures do increase turnout among those who hold greater post-materialist values and that this effect is concentrated among the youngest age groups.
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