UPDATE 11/8/06 7:40 a.m.

  • With essentially all precints reporting and roughly 60 percent of ballots counted, Washington’s I-933 is losing 58 (no) to 42 (yes). Most of the counties with large numbers of ballots still to count have so far leaned heavily toward “no.”
  • With almost every precint reporting, Idaho’s Proposition 2 suffered a resounding rejection, 72 (no) to 28 (yes).
  • Nearly all of California’s precints have reported and Proposition 90 is going down 52.5 (no) to 47.5 (yes).
  • The only blot on the otherwise wholesale rejection was Arizona, where Proposition 207 appears to have won 65 (yes) to 35 (no).

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As of 11:30 p.m. results are looking good for the 2006 “property rights” ballot measures.

  • Washington’s I-933 is going down to a decisive 57 to 43 defeat. With a comfortable margin of more than 120,000 votes, it looks like 933 has been handily defeated.
  • In Idaho, Proposition 2 is losing by a stunning (and somewhat unbelievable) margin of 77 to 23. (450 of 951 precincts reporting)
  • In California, Proposition 90 is, so far, losing narrowly: 52 to 48.
  • No reliable reporting yet from Arizona. (Early numbers had Prop 207 ahead by an almost 2 to 1 margin.)

Together with the judicial defeats in Nevada and Montana, it looks as though “property rights” activists have suffered a round defeat. Voters saw through the deceptions of Howie Rich & Co.

Obviously, the numbers I’ve cited here will change. But—fingers crossed—2006 will mark a time when communities chose to preserve their traditions of local decision-making. This is a victory for democracy at its most basic level.