Republican victories in the elections might have been a referendum by voters of the Obama Administration's policies and congressional inaction, but on ballot initiatives, the American people showed their progressive spirit.

Voters in four states passed measures to increase minimum wage, voters in Massachusetts passed a paid sick leave law, and a marijuana measure was passed in Washington, D.C. While GMO labelling initiatives in Colorado and Oregon failed, a county in Hawaii has banned GMOs. And voters in Washington State passed a measure that background checks occur at gun shows after the lack of progress federally on gun control laws.

Voters in Nebraska and South Dakota passed minimum wage hikes to $9 by 2016 and $8.50 by 2015, respectively. Illinois and Wisconsin passed non-bind resolutions to hike minimum wages to $10 by 2015 in Illinois and to $10.10 in nine counties and four Wisconsin cities.

In Arkansas, where a similar law was on the ballot, voters agreed to raising the minimum from $7.25 to $8.50 by 2017, with 65 percent of voters casting in support of the measure.

More than two-thirds of voters in Alaska agreed to raise minimum wage to $9.75 by 2016. In Alaska and South Dakota, minimum wage is now pegged to inflation, meaning that it will rise as the cost of living does.

President Obama has been trying to convince Congress to vote for a federal minimum wage increase from the current $7.25 to $10.10 and to index it to inflation. But House Republicans have refused to vote on the measure. In the face of Washington gridlock, states and municipalities have moved to raise wages. Prior to Tuesday's election, 26 states and the District of Columbia had set their minimum wage above the federal level as had more than 120 cities including Seattle, which passed a $15 minimum in June that phases in over time (it doesn't apply to all businesses until 2021).

Paid sick leave has also gained momentum with California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and 13 cities including New York now requiring many employers to provide some sort of paid leave. Federal law does not require private employers to give any paid sick leave, making the U.S. one of the only wealthy nations that doesn't guarantee workers this right.

In Massachusetts, workers in businesses with more than 10 employees will be able to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours a year. Proponents said that the law will apply to nearly 1 million workers in the state who did not have paid sick days.

While Congress has proven unable to pass universal background checks for gun purchases, a majority of voters in Washington State chose to close a loophole over sales at gun shows. It is the first successful vote for national gun control advocates.

Sixty percent of voters on Tuesday supported gun control measure called Initiative 594, which was designed to close the "gun show loophole." The measure requires criminal background checks for those purchasing firearms at gun shows or over the Internet.

Background checks are already required for those buying guns at federally licensed firearm dealers, but the passage of 594 marks a significant victory for the state's gun-control movement, which was launched after the mass murder of first graders in a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school.

"As the first state to pass this by popular vote, Washington has sent a message of hope to other states that progress is possible: We can act to prevent gun violence," Seattle Mayor Ed Murray told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "Our goal has never been about finding a single solution that will end gun violence once and for all. Instead, our goal has been to enact a sound system of common sense rules that can, by working in concert, make an enormous difference."

The campaign in the state was supported by over $10 million from a number of sources, including Bill and Melinda Gates and Everytown for Gun Safety (a group launched by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg).

"It is no secret that Washington was a Petri dish (for other states)," said Dave Workman, a pro-gun rights journalist in the Seattle area to the Seattle PI. He said about half of America's states allow citizens -- or well-financed interests -- to bring initiatives and referendums to the ballot. "Activists in those states have been waiting for Bloomberg and his group coming over the horizon."

The National Rifle Association had a rival measure on the ballot, which got 44 percent of the vote, and would have prohibited the state from enacting any gun-control measure not a part of federal law.

"If he (Bloomberg) is successful in this ballot initiative in Washington, we are very concerned that he will replicate this across the country, and we will have ballot initiatives like this one across the country," Catherine Mortensen of the NRA told The Olympian.