Forget Iowa and New Hampshire. The big vote in these parts is the one about The News & Observer's comics lineup. With all precincts reporting, the results are in.

In a surprising move, N&O editors have decided to keep all of the current comics and bring in nine more, including "Mallard Fillmore" and "Mother Goose and Grimm." And "Cathy" and "Hagar the Horrible," dropped from the lineup in recent years, are coming back.

The paper will move Jumble, the crossword puzzle and horoscopes to another page to accommodate the additions. Comics will be grouped by theme, and they may be on the paper's Web site later this year.

This Q&A explains the paper's reasoning behind it all, including why "Fillmore" will be on the comics pages while "Doonesbury" will stay on the op-ed page.

See you in the funny papers! (And what about that phrase anyway?)

Previous post here.

UPDATE: Readers love the decision to expand the comics.