2016 ballot could be biggest since 2000

A half-dozen proposed law changes are gaining steam, upping the potential for the biggest slate of ballot questions in 15 years next November and a possible deluge of advertisements on everything from marijuana legalization to farm animals.

The six petitions still eligible to go before voters next year each cleared a key 64,750-signature hurdle this month, and now sit before the Legislature, with a more modest 10,792-signature requirement awaiting — if lawmakers don’t act on them — to make it to the ballot.

Should they all survive, it would mark the most questions to appear on a statewide ballot since 2000, when voters weighed eight proposals.

Ballot questions, in many years, are largely driven by frustration over Beacon Hill inaction, said Fred Bayles, a Boston University professor who has studied referendums. But this year’s diverse group hits everything from a push to legalize weed and tax it like alcohol to...

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