It's not just about candidates for positions. I live in Colorado which allows citizen ballot initiatives and it's allowed us to reject actions of the government

It's not just about candidates for positions. I live in Colorado which allows citizen ballot initiatives and it's allowed us to reject actions of the government the populace disagrees with or to enact change they refuse to. A few notable examples are rejecting the 1976 winter Olympics from being hosted in Denver and the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana. Our ballots tend to be large and all citizens are mailed out what is know as "the blue book" months before the election which is a comprehensive guide to all the non-candidate questions including pros/cons and financial breakdowns. Between this and all-mail voting, we had the second highest voter turnout in 2020 and an extremely political engaged and knowledgeable electorate. I definitely would not trade it for less say in the political process.