Voters are disgusted by both parties, and an uninspiring midterm election campaign threatens to set new records for low turnout. But in key states across the country, some political strategists hope ballot measures will help bring reluctant voters to the polls.

There are fewer initiatives, referenda, propositions and other measures on the ballot this year – 126 – than in recent years, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a left-leaning group that keeps tabs on ballot measures.

But those that are on the ballot could have an impact on voter turnout.

Democrats are counting on measures in five states and several cities that would raise the minimum wage to attract their voters. States like Arkansas, Illinois and Alaska, where Democratic senators and governors face tough re-election fights, will decide whether to raise their minimum wage. So, too, will voters in South Dakota, home of an improbably close Senate contest, and in some cities in Wisconsin, where Republican Gov. Scott Walker faces a difficult re-election bid.

Republicans could benefit in Colorado, where supporters of a “personhood” amendment – which would define a fetus as a person for the purposes of the state’s criminal code – will be on the ballot for a third time. Then again, Democrats have used the personhood amendment to drive a wedge between Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat, and women voters. Gardner told The Washington Post earlier this year he will vote against the measure.

Justine Sarver, head of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, said in an interview that many of the measures that appeal to voters on both sides of the aisle stem from voter antipathy toward what they perceive as do-nothing legislatures, both in their states and in Washington.

“I’ve been going to focus groups for 18 years, and people have been fed up. But just when I think they could not be more fed up, they are,” Sarver said. “This year, when we see such lack of action on key issues, including really, really fundamental pocketbook issues in this economy, certainly people want solutions.”

The measures, Sarver said, can serve to “engage voters who have the potential to skip an election, and that’s what we hope for in a midterm election: That these things motivate people.”

Though there are individual groups on the right that advocate for or against specific initiatives or types of initiatives, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association, there is no umbrella organization that strategizes on behalf of conservative issues like BISC does on the left.

Interest groups on both sides have advanced measures on issues like gun rights and gun control, education, voting rights and genetically modified foods that legislatures have been unwilling or unable to take up and pass. In some cases, those measures represent starkly different visions on critical public policy issues: A Washington State ballot initiative would reduce class sizes across all grade levels, while a proposed Missouri constitutional amendment would require teachers to meet strict statewide testing standards to keep their jobs.

Several measures have already drawn millions of dollars in special interest and corporate money. California Proposition 45, which would limit increases to insurance rates, and Proposition 46, which would raise the cap on medical malpractice awards, have drawn more than $25 million in spending by insurance companies, and tens of millions more from trial lawyers. A San Francisco proposition that would levy a tax on sugary drinks has attracted more than $7 million in opposition spending from soda manufacturers. And agriculture mega-companies like Monsanto have contributed more than $10 million to defeat two measures, in Oregon and Colorado, that would require labels on foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.

There may be few initiatives on the ballot this year, but Sarver’s group is already looking ahead to next year – especially when it comes to measures that would raise the minimum wage.

“We’re looking at 2015, ‘16, to continue the conversation about economic fairness on the ballot,” she said.