Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure that sharply divided Californians with clashing images of civil rights leaders and ex-Klansman David Duke, won voters' approval late Tuesday.
With half the votes counted, Proposition 209, a constitutional
amendment that would eliminate government-sponsored affirmative action programs, was winning by 13%.
In fact, Californians were voting favorably on an extraordinary number of ballot propositions. Of the 15 proposals on the ballot, nine won or were leading.
On Proposition 209, the Los Angeles Times exit poll showed that a healthy majority of African American and Latino voters were opposed. Democrats also opposed Proposition 209, but by smaller margins, while Republicans favored it.
As the vote count continued, Gov. Pete Wilson, an early and outspoken supporter of Proposition 209, said: "This sought to undo a terrible unfairness so that opportunity is offered not just to some Californians, but to all Californians."
Wilson said he expected the measure to be challenged in the courts, but predicted that "fairness will prevail."
Another advocate, UC Regent Ward Connerly, an African American, told fellow blacks in a television address: "For decades we have relied on government to secure our rights . . . but the time has indeed come to let go. We cannot forever look through the rearview mirror at America's mistakes."
Read Scott Martin, spokesman for the group Defeat 209, said that the proposition was "the wedge issue that failed" because Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was unable to ride the measure to victory over President Clinton in California.
"We have just laid to rest the Republican national strategy of divide and conquer," Martin said, referring to Dole's loss in California.
In other results, Proposition 215, a measure permitting the medicinal use of marijuana won by a healthy margin. Proposition 213 to limit lawsuits by uninsured motorists and drunken drivers who are injured in car accidents won a major victory.
Also winning were measures to limit campaign contributions, raise the minimum wage, and spend $995 million to improve California's water system and enhance the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 211 to make it easier to sue over stock fraud. Another lawyer-backed initiative to prevent the Legislature from capping attorneys' fees also lost, as did two initiatives to increase regulation of the health care industry.
