Although majority support for marijuana legalization is a good sign for this Colorado campaign, it should be noted that in 2010 the California marijuana legalization measure, Proposition 19, was ahead in early polling but ended up losing narrowly on election day. This Colorado effort should be in slightly better shape than Prop 19 was because they are trying to put the issue on the ballot in a Presidential Election year. Presidential elections tend to see much higher turn out among young voters who strongly support legalization.

Mikal Jakubal’s One Good Year follows several people in Southern Humboldt County who work in the area’s biggest economy: Marijuana. Jakubal follows an entire grow cycle with “mom-and-pop” growers who are part of medical marijuana collectives, people who like the majority of residents in SoHum rely on pot as their main cash crop. Join us as we discuss this movie and the promise of One Good Year.

The Public Policy Institute of California is out with their post election survey, and among the many issues they focus on is why Californians voted for or against Proposition 19, the initiative that would have legalized marijuana. This measure failed last month by a seven points, with 46.5% voting yes and 53.5% voting yes.

According to the poll, Republicans where a main cause of Prop 19 failure. Only 27% of the Republicans who voted this year cast their ballot for Prop 19, while 73% voted against the measure. Democrats and independents supported the measure at near identical rates, 56% of Democrats and 55% of independents voted yes. This shows that at least some of Prop 19′s problems came down to bad timing. This 2010 midterm election had unusually high turnout among Republicans.

California’s Prop 19 lost by a such a narrow margin that its hard to imagine prohibition lasting much longer. In order to end the war on marijuana as soon as possible, Just Say Now is preparing for battle in 2012, but we cannot move forward without hearing from you, the backbone of this movement, first.

THE DEADLINE FOR OUR SURVEY IS TONIGHT. Click here to take Just Say Now’s survey on marijuana and the 2010 election, and help us bring prohibition to an end.

PS: If you take our survey by tonight, you will get a discount code worth 10% off purchases from our online store!

One of my first observations about the defeat of California’s Proposition 19 was how important turnout demographics were to the final outcome.

While I will need to wait for official final turnout numbers from the California Secretary of State to determine what impact Prop 19 had on youth turnout, it is clear from the available data that the initiative didn’t bring out young voters in the levels they normally do for presidential elections (as opposed to midterms).

Prop 19 was defeated at the polls, 54% to 46%. Medical marijuana initiatives in Oregon and South Dakota lost badly, and votes are still being counted in Arizona for a too-close-to-call race there.

It’s fine to say “we’ll do better next time,” but if “next time” is just more of the same, we’re destined to repeat the same mistakes and suffer the same outcome. And when people are putting their hearts and their money and their time toward ending prohibition, that’s just not good enough.

If we learned one thing during this election, it’s that the marijuana reform movement needs to embrace the grassroots, to stop preaching, and to start listening. The top-down strategy of the marijuana reform movement up until now has failed, and must not be repeated.

So we want to hear from you. We want to know how we did in this election, and where you think the marijuana reform movement should go.

Support for Prop 19 statewide in California is apparently less “fringe” than support for the Republican Party.

While President Obama won’t discuss the results of tonight’s brutal election until an afternoon press conference, his Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske already commented on the results of Proposition 19, California’s initiative to legalize marijuana.

Prop 19, California’s ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, is projected to be defeated at the polls today. The results currently show Prop 19 down 56-43 with 20% reporting, but will get much closer as the rest of the state reports. It’s clear though that 2010 is not the year California will legalize marijuana. The Yes on 19 campaign released a statement conceding the election.

Welcome to part four of FDL’s midterm election night liveblog (here are links to part one, part two and part three). For the most recent list of FDL’s top 108 House races to watch tonight, go here.

Polls are now closed in all states except Hawaii and Alaska. The Democrat loses in the House so far have been huge but Democrats are likely to hold on to the Senate.