Election night

Today was Election Day. The results were all but settled by the time we got back from picking Daughter K up at MEM, stopping for some Memphis bar-b-que at a Tops in Southaven, ... and I'd tethered to my phone to connect to the World Wide Wed to see what was going on.*

I first saw it on a Hot Air update. #26 was defeated.

This is shocking.

It is no surprise that #31 and #27 passed.

Sample ballot scanned from the SAMPLE BALLOT printed in our local weekly newspaper

#31 EMINENT DOMAIN: I'm new here, but my sense is that the Nissan thing really got folks in a foul mood about the state appropriating private property. I've seen some quick thoughts by bloggers who have never been to the rural parts of a Southern State.For most, but not all, Mississippians, #31 has nothing to do with Kelo:

MISSISSIPPI MEASURE 31 PASSES: “Mississippi Measure 31 – the important eminent domain reform initiative has passed, probably by an overwhelming margin. Although the returns are not yet completely in, the ‘yes’ side has 74% of the vote with almost 65% of precincts reporting. I outlined the case for Measure 31 here. The overwhelming support for the measure is consistent with results in previous referenda on post–Kelo reform initiatives.”

(The link takes you to where I first see it.)

It has everything to do with the early efforts by Farm Bureau Insurance to make this an issue.  Look at the wording. Very straightforward, I think. Answer: YES. I saw a late (last week) hit on it that was sponsored by some Jackson statist/corporate types. It was all about jobs and how many jobs were going to be lost if the government didn't have eminent domain "in its tool box" anymore.

That was insulting. My guess is that a fair number of Mississippians (~74%) actually do have actual tool boxes, and they know that a lot of the stuff that's in them is stuff used to build and maintain fences that delineate property lines. 

#27 VOTER ID:  The county-wide results will be interesting to look at. But overall, it's no surprise. Assuming it's not held up in court, next November, I will present my government issued License to Carry a Concealed Carry Weapon. It won't be that big a deal, everybody's got one.

#26 PERSONHOOD: Defeated. 58% AGAINST. And Lafayette Co.-- home of Oxford and TSUP-- has not yet reported. All of the is from Jackson's Clarion-Ledger, which, as far as I can tell, is providing county-by-county- results for this initiative only.

I kid you not, when I saw the headline update at Hot Air, I gasped out loud so loud that Mr. Big Food woke up and asked what was wrong. It took me about 10 minutes to find and pull up all of the relevant sites, and retrieve my Mississippi county map, provided to me by the Mississippi Government. The end result is shocking. The county-by-county is predictable, except for a few like the county we live in, where there were a far greater percentage of NO votes than I would have predicted.

If you'd have asked me yesterday what I thought the margin was going to be on this, I'd have said, 65-35, or maybe 60-40, FOR.

Shocking. More thoughts/analyses and appeal to info from the census to come. 

*We passed by a very remarkable scene at the courthouse-- which we have to pass by every time we head to town-- about 9:30pm. I'll talk about it soon.