Although the fact that the black and Latino demographic contributed heavily to the success of Democrat Barack Obama’s election as President, they also showed more conservative views, as a large number of them in California helped the passing of Proposition 8, a ballot measure titled “Eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry.”

Electoral exit polls indicated that 70% of black voters and a large majority of Latino voters had said yes to Proposition 8. Thus, they contributed in no small measure to the measure’s victory by a narrow margin in Los Angeles County, where pre-election polls suggested it would lose. The proposition lost badly in the Bay Area. Overall the preliminary reports from all the precincts show a result of 52.5% in favor of the proposition and 47.5% against. It takes about a month for poll results to be made final but some counties have already stopped issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples.

Reverend Amos Brown recounts a tale that may have been prophetic of this week’s results. As the good reverend preached on Sunday to his congregation, he told them that they should be mindful of everyone’s civil rights when they voted on same-sex marriages this week. As he did so a church member tried to take away his microphone angry that the preacher was discussing gay marriage in a mostly-black church.

In San Jose activists for the No on Proposition 8 in San Jose found difficulty in distributing campaign signs in Spanish and Vietnamese (who comprise a significant portion of the population in the city) as the state-wide campaign only had signs in English.

Those were only two of the hints about the turnout of Proposition 8 and its 5-point victory on Tuesday. The measure, which was one of the most popular on the ballot, won with 5.4 million yes votes, helped by the large segment of Obama voters.

The next day, while supporters of the measure celebrated, it was a day of worry for the some 18,000 same-sex couples who married between June 16 (the day when same-sex marriage was ratified in California) and Election Day. Legal threats were made by both sides, to either get those marriages nullified or the new constitutional ban revoked.

The result was food for thought as to why statewide polls had been wrong in suggesting that Obama’s large victory would bury proposition 8.

To be honest with you, we were kind of fearing that a great outcome for Obama would mean a defeat on Proposition 8, but we found out that African-American people, they are very conservative," said the Rev. Nestor Morales, a San Jose pastor who helped organize Bay Area churches to raise money for Yes on 8 ads in Spanish. "We found a lot of Democrats voting for Obama and voting yes for Proposition 8. Even Latinos, a lot of Latinos that voted for Obama, they also voted yes on Proposition 8."

Tuesday’s events serve to reinforce the observation that while black and other minority voters tend to be more liberal     on matters of policy, hence their support for Obama, but they are more conservative on moral and social issues, hence their support for the proposition.