Michigan’s overwhelming adoption of a ban on the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other state agencies appears likely to result in months of legal wrangling over the measure’s enforcement there and the emergence of campaigns for similar ballot proposals in other states.
As ballots were counted through Wednesday morning, unofficial election results showed that the proposed ban on preferences, known as Proposal 2, had passed with 58 percent of the vote. It was resoundingly approved despite being up against a much-better-financed opposition campaign that enlisted much of the state’s economic and political establishment, in a year when Democrats made a good enough showing at the polls to win most key elections.