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Article
Flags of Our Fathers: Voting on Confederate Symbols in the State of Georgia
Public Choice
  • William F. Shughart, II, Utah State University
  • Gokhan R. Karahan
  • Michael Reksulak
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Abstract

Participants in a special election held in the State of Georgia on 2 March 2004 voted overwhelmingly in favor of adopting a newly designed state flag that no longer incorporated a divisive Confederate symbol. We analyze the legislative politicking that defined the voters' options as well as the outcome of popular voting on the flag design across Georgia's 159 counties. We find the referendum's results to have been determined largely by demography (education, race, and population density) and by the level of support in 2002 for the two gubernatorial candidates who played significant roles in the flag controversy.

Citation Information
“Flags of Our Fathers: Voting on Confederate Symbols in the State of Georgia (with Gökhan R. Karahan and Michael Reksulak), Public Choice 131 (April 2007), pp. 83–99.