Ballotpedia has amazing coverage of US elections and a recent report from them looks at the success rate of voter referendum. Take a look at this excerpt:

In 2020, Ballotpedia covered local measures that appear on the ballot for voters within the top 100 largest cities in the U.S. This includes citywide measures and countywide, special district, and school district measures on the ballot for a significant number^[1] of voters within the largest cities. Ballotpedia also covered all local measures in California and all statewide ballot measures in the country.

There were 314 local measures in 26 different states and Washington, D.C., on the ballot for voters in the top 100 largest cities in the U.S. This page contains the following summaries and analyses:

• Measures by state
• Measures by outcome
• Measure by topic
• Notable topics and measures
• Measures by type
• Measures by election date

See more from the Ballotpedia report here. Also, see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on the Founding Fathers, Election History, or even seen our section on American Democracy.