Prop 88 Washington State – anti Racial Quotas in Gov. hiring Wins, College admissions defeated 50.38 to 49.62%

Prop 88 Washington State update!

Late Tuesday Afternoon… It’s official.  The Washington State Elections Division site has posted the very final results.  10,500 absentee votes had been outstanding from King County (Seattle), Snohomish (Everett) and Pierce County (Tacoma). At 5:00 pm Pacific time, they posted the final update.  The official results stand:

Rejected 50.38%

929,081 votes

Approved 49.62%

915,143 votes

The final vote total actually improved very slightly for Rejected from 50.35% to 50.38%

For days Seattle media had been sounding dour, signaling that Rejected was likely to come out on top even with late votes still coming in.

From Mike Carter at the Seattle Times,

Weekend ballot count leaves Referendum 88 trailing by less than 1 percentage point statewide

The latest vote count released Saturday by Snohomish County failed to make any significant difference in the bleak prospects for Referendum 88, which would have ended a two-decade ban on affirmative action in Washington state…

Opposition to the referendum in Snohomish County remained about constant, with nearly 55% of voters rejecting it.

After the Saturday tallies were added, the Secretary of State’s Office said the referendum was losing by nearly 13,000 votes, or 50.35 % to 49.65 %. The difference is not close enough to trigger a mandatory recount.

Patch.com adds in their Elections Round-up,

Election results must be certified by each county on November 26th. The Secretary of State certifies the final results by December 5th.

The WA Democrat Party supported the Proposition to legalize discrimination.

 [We believe] that at times preferential treatment is fair and in the public interest

The Republican Party of Washington was opposed.

The Reject88.com site explains that if passed Proposition 88 would have legalized “different rules for different people” based solely on ethnicity.

Referendum Measure 88 would create a massive government agency to enforce the use of race in all aspects of government employment, college admissions and public contracting.  Referendum Measure 88 would be overseen by an unelected board that would not be accountable to voters.  A board with sweeping authority to make decisions on preferences in academic admissions and government hiring.  Send the Olympia politicians who support this a message:   REJECT Referendum 88!  

Subspecieist.com reached the Reject88 campaign this evening.  From their campaign spokesperson Linda Yang, press release:

Leaders of the Let People Vote/ Reject Referendum 88 campaign claimed victory today as the statewide measure failed with nearly all votes counted across the state. Voters in 35 of the state’s 39 counties rejected the measure—often overwhelmingly. The referendum is failing in 75% of the state’s legislative districts.

Linda Yang, the group’s leader said, “We are pleased that voters of Washington State saw through the misleading ballot title and voted to re-affirm the principle of Equality for All. We were opposed by some of the strongest and most well-funded special interests ever assembled. Our coalition of volunteers from across the political spectrum defeated the Pro-88 campaign because voters didn’t want a new system of quotas based on race, nor did they want a massive new unaccountable government bureaucracy to implement it. Our group will continue to work to address racial and economic disparities in all aspects of government and society.”

Reject88 was outspent 5 to 1.

“Despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by powerful insiders, voters turned out in surprisingly high numbers to reject racial discrimination when granting jobs, school admissions, and contracts. Washington voters affirmed that human dignity means judging each of us by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin.”

Campaign video for Reject88 at YouTube.

UPDATE! Washington State has experienced a backlash of sorts against Democrat rule since the 2019 referendum.  Republicans are hopeful of picking up a seat or two for 2022.