The amendment to our Tennessee state constitution that defines marriage as specifically between a man and woman passed with around 80% of the vote. Before you go into shock at the idea of anything, much less something controversial, passing by that kind of margin let me explain what made that possible.

The threshold that an amendment must meet in our state is equal to half of the votes cast in the gubernatorial race. I would guess that the logic there harkens back to when everything had to be counted by hand with a small electoral staff and they sought ways to reduce counting time. They assumed that they knew what peoples' behavior would be, and as with most such assumptions they were wrong.

This creates a few very interesting possibilities. Fundamental to this is that for every vote cast for any gubernatorial candidate, the threshold an amendment must reach is raised by a half vote. Remember, the number an amendment must reach in TN is half of the total votes for governors, so any vote for any governor makes it harder for an amendment to pass.

If you are strongly in favor of an amendment passing, you will abstain from the gubernatorial race because it makes your vote twice as effective. Not voting for governor lowers the number of gubernatorial votes by one and thus the threshold an amendment must meet by a half vote. When the vote is then cast in favor of an amendment, it moves the amendment closer to passing by an entire vote.

On the other hand, if you are against an amendment you have an easier choice to make. You vote for whatever governor you want, putting the amendment a half vote farther from passing, and then simply vote against the amendment.

Honestly I don't know what would be done if the amendment reached the number needed and yet did not gain 50%+ of its own vote. Theoretically it would be possible if more voted on the amendment than for governors.

This also casts a shadow on Bredeson's victory to retain his governorship of the state. Did the amendment lure conservative votes away from his oppponent? While Bredeson's margin of victory was very comfortable, we come back again to the 80% passing of the amendment. Exactly how many Tennesseeans abstained from the gubernatorial vote? Bryant was not favored to win and after the Sundquist fiasco Bredesen had a lot of slack with which to work. Still, without the amendment this election may have been very different.