1.   More than thirty six thousand voters backed Douglas Hurd.

2.   French voters have narrowly backed the Maastricht treaty.

3.   Black voters traditionally back Democrats, but many were unhappy with Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon over his role in school desegregation cases.

4.   Buchanan on Thursday said he thought his vote total in the county looked unusually high and concluded that some voters might have backed him by mistake.

5.   Democrats argue that the ballot was so confusing that Gore voters mistakenly backed Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.

6.   Even better, the voters have backed them.

7.   In Massachusetts, voters backed a campaign-finance reform plan that would provide for public financing of most state election campaigns.

8.   In other words, MacArthur wants voters to back Nader, but not if it means indirectly helping to elect Bush.

9.   Independence will not be instant, though, even if voters back it resoundingly.