I'd say it failed primarily for these reasons:
- The Catholic Church, along with most every non-Baptist church, was against it and pretty active in encouraging people to vote no. This apparently came as a shock to the pro-26 leaders and is probably the reason why the Coast counties went no.
- The NAACP was also against, apparently surprising the pro-26 leaders.
- People realized it would probably ban birth control pills, which wasn't going to fly in wealthy white suburbs in DeSoto, Rankin, and Madison counties.
- It may have helped that the Mississippi Democratic Party sat this one out and let others do the work for them. This way, conservative Republicans didn't have to wrestle with being on the liberal/Democratic side in voting no.
