Where Were the Other 91.36%?

With 100% of precincts state-wide reporting, the Secretary of State's office unofficially reported that all 16 constitutional amendments on yesterday's ballot passed, with large margins.

The most popular measure of the night, Prop. 9, was the proposal by Sens. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, to end ad valorem property taxes for totally disabled veterans (something seen during the lege session as correcting an earlier legislative error), which passed with 86.19% of votes cast. The closest run result was Prop. 4, the billion dollar maintenance and repair bond issue, which passed by a comparative squeaker margin of 16%.

But before everyone gets too excited about this major victory for participatory democracy, there's another figure: 8.64%. That was the highest recorded turn-out for any issue (Prop. 15, the Cancer Fund financing, which passed 61.43% to 38.57%.)

See this week's upcoming issue for more in-depth coverage.