With all the results in, the other big story in last week’s momentous election, was the successful passing of the three marriage amendments on state ballots this year, which amended state constitutions in Arizona, California, and Florida and defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

In California, black voters came out in record numbers to support Barack Obama. They supported Proposition 8, California’s marriage amendment proposition, in large numbers as well.

According to the 2004 exit poll, approximately 700,000 blacks voted in that year’s presidential election, making up six percent of the electorate. In this most recent election, that percentage climbed to 10 percent, or just over one million voters. This would mean an additional 210,000 pro-Proposition 8 votes.

The measure passed by approximately 500,000 votes.

Deborah Mayes, a 50-something African American from Los Angeles, worked to get the measure passed. She and other members from her church, the Zoe Christian Fellowship, made phone calls and knocked on doors.

“I believe in traditional values. I prayed for it to pass,” Mayes told Pop + Politics.

Mayes is also a supporter of Barack Obama, and was thrilled when he got elected.

“I voted for Obama and I’m glad I did,” she said. “I was hoping America could forget all that’s happened in the past.”

She doesn’t see a contradiction between supporting Proposition 8 and supporting Barack Obama. “I vote values,” Mayes said. “I have never voted straight ticket. I’m not gullible. I’m very value-based.”

In both Florida and Arizona, gay marriage was already against the law, but proponents of “traditional” marriage sought to amend their state constitutions to prevent the courts from declaring the laws unconstitutional.

Florida’s Proposition 2 was unexpected to succeed because it required 60 percent of the vote to pass—and it received 62 percent. Polls leading up to the election had the highest level of support at 55 percent, though some voters were still undecided.

In Arizona, even opponents of the measure weren’t too upset that it passed after Barack Obama was elected president. “I think the country was like, ‘Look, you get Obama, call it a day and go home,’ ” Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic state representative who led opponents against Proposition 102, told the New York Times.

Before the election, we highlighted some key propositions in swing states to get a better idea of what might draw voters to the polls. The results of those elections are below.

Colorado
Ballot measure name: Amendment 48
It would: change the definition of “person” in the Colorado constitution to include any fertilized egg, embryo or fetus.
Pass or fail? Amendment 48 failed with 73 percent of voters rejecting it.
Key quote: “We knew when Coloradans understood the far-reaching consequences of the amendment, they’d vote no,” Fofi Mendez, the No on 48 campaign manager, told the Rocky Mountain News. The amendment fractured Colorado’s pro-life community, with some prominent groups supporting the measure and others opposing it.

Missouri
Ballot measure name: Constitutional Amendment 1
It would: amend the state constitution to make English the official language at all governmental meetings where policy is discussed or decided.
Pass or fail? Constitutional Amendment 1 passed with 86.3 percent of voters supporting it.

Montana
Ballot measure name: Initiative 155
It would: extend state-funded health insurance to uninsured children.
Pass or fail? Initiative 155 passed with 70 percent of voters supporting it.
Key quote: “Here is an opportunity for Montanans to rally for the expansion of health care coverage for our state’s children. Montana has one of the highest rates of uninsured children in the nation, and we know that kids without insurance are less likely to get care for common conditions, and especially dental work.” Mike Downing of RiverStone Health told the Billings Gazette. Supporters of the measure were concerned new voters would ignore down-ticket items, but I-155 passed easily.

Nevada
Ballot measure name: Question 2—People’s Initiative to Stop the Taking of our Land (or PISTOL)
It would: require land taken by the government under eminent domain laws be valued at its “highest and best use.”
Pass or fail? Question 2 passed with 61 percent of voters supporting it.

North Dakota
Ballot measure name: Measure 2—the Income Tax Cut Initiative
It would: lower taxes for corporations by 15 percent and taxes for individuals by 50 percent.
Pass or Fail? Measure 2 failed with only 30.2 percent of voters supporting it.
Key quote: “If they don’t understand the implications of the language, more often than not they’ll err on the side of caution and vote no,” University of North Dakota political science professor Dana Harsell told the Bismark Tribune. According to Harsell, many voters were undecided going into the voting booth.

Ohio
Ballot measure name: Issue 5
It would: cap the interest rate of payday loans at 28 percent. The current cap is 391 percent.
Pass or fail? Issue 5 passed with 63 percent of voters supporting it.
Key quote: “Ohio voters stripped payday lenders of their permit to fleece working people,” Yes on 5 treasurer Bill Faith told the Ohio State Lantern.

Pennsylvania
The only ballot measure is a bond measure to raise $400 million to make water and sewer improvements.
Pass or fail? The sewer bond question passed with 62 percent of voters supporting it.

As the American public ponders who they’ll vote for in the 2008 presidential election, lawyers behind the scenes are gearing up to ensure that everyone’s vote counts.

In the battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and Nevada, the Democratic and Republican parties are deploying teams of lawyers at the polls to ensure that bureaucracy and voting violations don’t take place on Nov. 4.

The Ledger.com of Lakeland, Florida reported Oct. 5:

“In the past, the Election Day process wasn’t considered to be as crucial as the campaign that led up to that,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer. “Now we see that the Election Day process is equally as important, or more so.”

Since the historic 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, voting will never be the same. Many people still remember the notorious “hanging chads” in Florida and going to bed on the eve of the 2000 election thinking Al Gore had won the presidency bid. Since this debacle, Help America Vote Act (NAVA) of 2002 was passed to nix punch card (read: chads) voting systems, create the Election Assistance Commission to watch over Federal elections, and  establish minimum election administration standards. Thus, lawyers are showing up at the polls, especially in key swing states, to ensure NAVA is followed to the letter.

One of the biggest pre-election issues at the moment is the “voter registration verification law,” also known as the “no match, no vote” law in Florida. Basically, for voters who registered after Sept. 8, their photo ID information must match the Social Security or driver license in the state databases. If there isn’t a match, the voters have to use a provisional ballot and provide proof to the election office (at a later date) that they were a legally registered voter.

For many critics, this law could mean thousands of disenfranchised voters as a result of confusion, faulty databases and simple mistakes. And Democrats, who have record numbers of newly registered voters, are worried that legal voters will be denied their right to vote.

Adding fuel to the flame, the Obama camp “has publicly asked for thousands of lawyers to come to Florida and monitor polls for irregularities or problems.”

Of course, Florida’s voting system is receiving a lot of attention but it’s not the only state where pre-election legal battles are brewing. Last week, the McCain campaign won a lawsuit after Ohio’s secretary of state, a Democrat, ruled that absentee ballot requests would not be allowed if a box wasn’t checked. And similar to Florida’s “no match, no vote” dispute, “Wisconsin’s attorney general is suing to force the use of a database to confirm voters’ identification.”

And even the District of Columbia is sending lawyers to the November polls. The Washington Post recently reported:

“Lawyers working pro bono for the District will monitor the polls and will be at elections headquarters Nov. 4 after the debacle that caused thousands of phantom votes to be added to initial tallies of [September's] primary.”

The good news is that there are legal eagles watching the election. The bad news is that there are legal eagles watching the election. Both Democrats and Republicans claim each side is out to prevent the other party’s voters from casting their ballots through the clever use of bureaucracy, laws, misinformation, and intimidation.

Although the pre-election legal battles are intriguing, the important thing to do now is ensure you have registered to vote. If you haven’t registered, it may not be too late. Check out RocktheVote.org or use Google’s 2008 Voter information for help with voter registration.

Sex in video games—it was inevitable, and it signals an even greater variety of digital sex in America to come. At least, that’s according to writer Damon Brown, whose book “Porn & Pong: How ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Tomb Raider’ and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture” was released last month. Salon’s interview with Brown offers a taste of his historical tour of cybersex.

Europe’s four largest economic powers would not agree to a joint response to the financial crisis as it spread overseas. The lack of concert among the full 27-nation membership shows the European Union may still be a marriage only on paper. Leaders from France, Germany, Britain, and Italy announced that each nation would need to respond to the crisis individually, but “in a coordinated way,” according to the Washington Post. Leaders from other countries were miffed at not being invited to the talks.

Dems are set to gain new voters as registration deadlines loom in key swing states. The influx could tip the balance in favor of presidential candidate Barack Obama, but Republicans point out he still needs to get the new voters to the polls. Meanwhile, Karl Rove said Obama would win if the vote were held today.

Is Sarah Palin losing McCain the Jewish vote? A “small, unscientific sampling” of locals at a Florida shopping mall found that some Democratic-leaning Jewish voters who were drifting toward McCain changed their minds when he picked his running mate. One said he found Palin “offensive.” But maybe Salon shouldn’t lead stories with a “small, unscientific sampling.”

O.J.’s been found guilty, and (surprise!) the verdict has sparked debate over whether the jury was actually convicting him of murder. The defense has argued that the jury, mostly white, sought payback for the outcome of the hugely publicized 1995 trial in which a mostly black jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of the murder of his ex-wife and her friend. Jurors deny they were influenced in any way by the previous trial. As it stands, Simpson faces 15 years to life. Sentencing is set for Dec. 15.

Bulletproof leather jackets, here! Get your armored polo shirts! An increasingly popular store in Mexico City caters to politicians and celebrities by selling bullet-proof clothing. Apparently the clerks are required to take the bullet so they can personally vouch for the products. They probably shouldn’t market this line to tourists, though.

Coca-cola is a contraceptive, it turns out, but Diet Coke works best. The study that led to this conclusion (and another one that contradicted it) just earned the researchers an Ig Nobel, a prize for unusual or improbable research. Other prizewinning research found that armadillos can move archaeological artifacts and thereby alter the historical record and that female strippers make more money when they’re most fertile. I just hope none of these studies were government-funded.

Sarah: you’re hilarious. I love you. But you do crass better than you do politics. And when it comes to schnoz and money-grubbing references, I’m over it. Maybe from Mel Brooks or Gene Wilder, Woody Allen and sometimes Jerry Seinfeld. But even then…dead horse…you know?

But: “I would rather have a president whose name means lightning than a president whose name means toilet”…priceless.