PORTLAND, Ore. — Voters in Portland, Ore. rejected a plan to add fluoride to a water supply that serves around 900,000 people, according to The Oregonian.
Early results showed that 61 percent of voters opposed the plan, which initially had heavy support from several areas, noted the article.
After five City Council members had voted to add fluoride to the city’s water supply many health advocacy groups lined up to support the cause.
However, it was not enough to win over the majority of voters who now have rejected fluoridation for the fourth time since the 1950s, stated the article.
"There's a libertarian component to Oregon politics … a kind of opposition to what the establishment might want," said Bill Lunch, a political science professor at Oregon State University. "Those who have more money, despite the kind of popular presumptions in this regard, don't always win elections."
Read the entire article here.