4 out of 5 ain't bad: November victories suggest activists may have found the right for winning at the ballot box. (Election).

What a difference a year makes. In 2000 gay rights advocates lost in five of the six ballot issues decided across the country. But on November 6 the opposite happened: Gay rights measures were victorious in four of five cities considering them.

Voters in two Michigan cities--Kalamazoo and Traverse City--rejected proposals to bar officials from enacting antidiscrimination policies regarding sexual orientation. In a third Michigan city--Huntington Woods--voters upheld an ordinance banning antigay discrimination. And in Miami Beach, Fla., two pro-gay ballot measures were passed, one granting benefits to the domestic partners of city employees and another offering survivors' benefits to the partners of police officers and fire fighters. Only in Houston did the result go against gay rights; voters prohibited the city from offering same-sex domestic-partner benefits--by a slim 3% margin.

Activists attribute the shift to an unprecedented coordination of national and local efforts, focusing on the tactic of voter identification. Using previous years' voter lists, volunteers called or visited as many voters as they possibly could to gauge their views on gay rights. That way, "you really [can] concentrate on that middle group of persuadable voters, which when given the right message will support gay and lesbian equality," said Seth Kilbourn, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign.

"Voter ID just means taking the time to talk one-on-one with voters openly and honestly about the issues and making sure they vote," said Dave Fleischer, director of training for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Fleischer and his staff worked with leaders in Michigan, Texas, and Florida this year, offering education, money, and personnel. "What we've had in the past are a disproportionate number of campaigns that I've described as counting on luck to win, or they counted on trying to find a gimmick to win," Fleischer said. "Those approaches don't work. [Voter ID] does."

Next year will provide additional testing ground for the voter identification approach. Measures are already scheduled to go on ballots in Nevada, Maryland, and Ypsilanti, Mich. Other measures am pending in Oregon, Maine, and Dade County, Fla.