Missouri Vote on Gay Marriage

The Christian Science Monitor headline read "Gay Marriage Takes a Hit." Missouri's election that included an amendment to their consitution banning gay marriage was a suprise. The Bradenton Herald had the details.

The final vote was 71% to 29% with a stunning 43 turnout. The pre-election polls showed 60% of the voters approved of the amendment.

But the size of the turnout did surprise analysts. One reason why was that advocates of the amendment ran a largely under-the-radar campaign that spent less than $10,000, using word of mouth and help from church-based networks rather than expensive advertising. Opponents of the amendment spent more than $360,000, including more than $100,000 from national gay-rights groups.

Read it all.

Voter Turnout

Voter turnout in Tuesday's statewide primary elections reached its highest level since the state began tracking it 24 years ago.

At least 42.8 percent of Missouri's nearly 3.5 million registered voters cast ballots, surpassing the previous primary election high of 36.5 percent set in August 1992, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday.

Source: The State ... here

Catholic World had this "The wide margin of victory for the Missouri amendment is especially notable given that Democrats vastly outnumbered Republicans at the polls on Tuesday for strongly contest gubernatorial primary."

And then there is this:

Missouri's Republican-dominated state legislature overwhelming passed the amendment earlier this year and had initially placed it on the November ballot. But Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat opposed to the amendment, switched the vote to today to coincide with a state Democratic primary. Many believed that move was intended to lower the likelihood of the amendment passing since the primary race was expected to draw many more liberal voters to the polls.
If that was indeed the governor's intention, it backfired dramatically.

From the Daily Yomiuri