Voters in Alabama – where former Gov. George Wallace once vowed "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever" – narrowly defeated a move to strip Jim Crow language from the state's constitution that provides for segregated schools.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, the amendment was losing by 2,561 votes. A total of 690,155 people voted against the amendment while 687,594 voted for it, according to unofficial results from the office of Alabama secretary of state.
In California, in another crucial vote affecting thousands of blacks, voters in that state rejected Proposition 66, a measure that would have softened the “three strikes” sentencing laws that imprison blacks at a higher rate than whites.
And in Florida, a ballot measure to increase the minimum wage for thousands of working poor passed. Opponents of that $1 increase in the minimum wage however are vowing to mount a legal challenge to the successful ballot measure.
The Alabama amendment matter isn’t quite dead. State officials may order a recount because of a law passed by the Legislature in 2003 that mandates an automatic recount when there is less than a half-percent margin in a general election between candidates or on a statewide issue.
Robert White of the Elections Division in the Secretary of State’s office told BlackAmericaWeb.com on Wednesday that the Alabama's attorney general has been asked to give an opinion on the potential recount. “We also are counting the provisional ballots, which could have an impact on the outcome,” White said.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley supports Amendment 2 and has said that he will take the matter to the state legislature and ask them to fix it.
Those who oppose Amendment 2 argued that it opened the door for a tax increase. Though Alabamians pay some of the lowest taxes in the country, any measure that threatens to bring an increase has been defeated in recent years – including a tax hike proposed by the Republican governor two years ago.
Roy Moore, the ousted State Supreme Court Justice who gained national attention with his stand on the Ten Commandments monument in the state’s judicial building was one of the leading opponents to the amendment, along with the Alabama Christian Coalition.
The Christian Coalition on Wednesday issued a statement saying the organization does not oppose integrated schools, but wants to ensure that “reckless trial lawyers and activist judges will not be able to open the flood gates to increase taxes and that private, Christian and parochial and home-school families will be protected.” Opponents said that if the language from the old constitution was removed, the lawmakers would have been free to increase taxes to pay for education.
But that fear of taxes, racism and the fact that no organization mounted a strong push for the amendment are what killed it, said University of Alabama Birmingham professor Angela Lewis. “I was not surprised,” she said. “It was just a few years ago when voters narrowly approved removing the constitutional language that barred interracial marriage.”
Lewis pointed out that the amendment is a symbolic measure.
“The federal courts have said you can not segregate schools,” she said. So the language has no bearing. “Still I’d rather know where people stand. At least I know that half the people in Alabama want segregated schools.”
The Rev. Abraham Woods, president of the Birmingham SCLC, called Tuesday “A sad day in Alabama.” He said, “The spirit of racism is still playing a part in our lives. Some in Alabama are still living in the past. This would not have opened the door for a back door tax increase.”
In California, Proposition 66 was defeated 53 to 47 percent, according the unofficial returns from the Secretary of State's office. Geri Silva, executive director of Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes [FACTS] said: "Polls showed that a majority of the people, more than 70 percent, were in favor of Proposition 66 up until a month before Election Day. It didn't change until [Gov.] Arnold Schwarzenegger came out with his $3 million campaign against it in the final weeks before the election.
"He came out with about 20 different Willie Hortons," Silva said. "People voted against it because of fear." Silva said in Los Angeles County alone, 2,897 non-violent criminals are serving life sentences. Of that number 1,613, or 56 percent, are black. In California, blacks make up less than 7 percent of the population.
Malik Russell of the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute said reforming sentencing laws in California would help the finances of that cash-strapped government. "They are spending more to imprison non-violent people with three strikes than they are spending on people in state colleges," he said.
