Opinion ID: 770944
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Other elections

Text: 50 Zax also produced evidence of white bloc voting with respect to ballot initiatives and retention elections. There were 64 ballot initiatives in the four districts challenged on appeal. Of the 64 contests, Indian and white voters preferred different options in 28 contests. In majority-white districts, white voters defeated the Indian-preferred alternative in 16 of 23 contests (70%), but did so by a bloc exceeding 60% of white voters on only 4 of 23 instances (17%). There were 5 contests in majority-Indian districts, and the Indian-preferred alternative was defeated in only one of those instances. 51 Results were similar if all eight districts challenged at trial are considered. Of the 128 contests, 64 were split-preference elections. White voters defeated the Indian-preferred alternative in 34 of 43 contests (79%), but in only 10 of those 43 instances (23%) did white voters vote by a bloc in excess of 60%. 52 Of the 18 retention elections, white and Indian voters did not prefer different alternative in any of those contests. 53