elections

From the Fayetteville Observer editorial:

Why would state Rep. Edgar Starnes and Sen. Jerry Tillman want North Carolina to be the next Florida? That's what they would turn us into, in the 2016 presidential election.

The Republican lawmakers have filed bills that cut the early-voting period from two weeks to one and eliminate same-day voter registration.

Starnes' bill also would halt early voting on Sundays and ban straight-ticket voting.

We know most lawmakers aren't historians, but what happened in Florida last November is such recent history that it almost still qualifies as news. But Starnes and Tillman are ignoring it, which may doom us to relive it.

(Hat tip to Carin Savel)
http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/03/29/1246753?sac=fo.opinion

For my fellow political junkies, an opportunity to see some history being made.

On C-Span at 12:15 pm, NC Sec. of State Elaine Marshall will be on as the Electoral College vote is televised. You can view online here.

is one for the history books. At the end of early voting on Saturday, 49.7% of all registered African American voters in NC had cast their votes. And of those votes, 61% came from WOMEN. By contrast, turnout among White voters was only 38.7%.

The person who deserves much of the credit for mobilizing the African American community is Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of the North Carolina NAACP. He delivered a powerful GOTV speech during this year's NC NAACP State Conference:

Election 2012: The Heart of the Matter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CZmHmeNgRQ&feature=youtu.be

Pew research releasaed its final pre-election poll and the numbers show that President Obama has good momentum heading into the last days of the election. He is up 50% to Rmoney's 47% among likely voters. This poll has a larger than usual sample size and, as such, has a smaller margin of error. This is Pew Research's prediction for the popular vote breakdown and should be taken a little more seriously than other polls. Pew got the 2008 and 2004 popular vote exactly right.

This agrees rather well with Nate Silver's 538 expected outcome.

Still holding my breath but I'd much rather be a Democrat right now than a Republican.

Republicans think they're winning the race

Read more here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/democrats_lead_early_vot...

Sounds like a lot of spin from both the red and the blue spin masters, but some interesting numbers.

As of September 30, True the Vote had 286 volunteers in sixty different North Carolina counties signed up. The largest concentrations of voter suppression volunteers are in Wake (71), Guilford (22), Mecklenburg (19), Forsyth (17), Durham (15), and Henderson (11) counties.

If you can commit at least 4 hours on Election Day, please contact your precinct or county's Democratic leadership and ask to serve as a poll watcher. Your name has to be submitted to your County Board of Elections via a political party; however, you can be registered as an independent. The deadline to get on the approved list is five days before the election. If you are not on the list, you will not be allowed to stay inside the polling place. Democratic precinct chairs will be delighted to have more volunteers to help cover the 13 long hours between 6:30 am and 7:30pm. Some counties also provide poll watcher training.

I have heard rumors that our Lt. Governor is running to replace Bev Perdue but have yet to see any concrete evidence of such. I do not watch tv, so have missed any ads or debates. I have seen his website, but three (3, three, tres, san) email contacts have yet to be answered. I even volunteered for the Dalton campaign at his website without a response of any kind. I think now, perhaps, that it's just a front; nobody is really there. I haven't even seen any ads online or heard ads on the radio for Mr. Dalton. Not a campaign sign exists in the whole of Person County so now I think this whole Dalton campaign could just be gossip or some warped rumor.

I saw this poll on Yahoo recently ... I am really trying hard not to get my hopes up, but this poll has made it more difficult.

On a broader polling note, the latest series of North Carolina polls concerning the presidential election looks pretty good. The really shocking number comes from the Civitas poll which gives President Obama a 4 point lead. I am glad I didn't have any food in my mouth when I saw that :)

I can't wait for early voting to start. (crosses fingers, knocks wood, looks for 4 leaf clover)

Tomorrow you can be part of a select group of people and have your vote ‘count’ more than it ever has before. On Tuesday North Carolina will conduct a 2nd primary to determine runoff winners for various offices. When a similar election was held in 2008, turnout was an abysmal 1.8%

While Republicans have several contested runoffs, including a few for Council of State, Democrats have only one statewide runoff – Labor Commissioner. As one of the only two Republicans on the Council of State, Cherie Berry has consistently been an embarrassment to North Carolina and the workers who rely on her department. We need to send the “Elevator Queen” home for good this year and we have two compelling candidates.

John Brooks has an enormous amount of experience, having served as Commissioner of Labor for 16 years. The experience and knowledge he would bring to the office would be a vast improvement over Commissioner Berry.

The Amendment One contest will be the target for state mandated post election audits per Don Wright at the NC State Board of Elections per an email on Friday May 11.

If you would like to volunteer to participate or observe you may contact your County Board of Elections.

Post Election Audits were mandated by state legislators in August 2005. In addition to requiring a voter verified paper ballot, the law requires random, manual hand to eye audits to check that the voting machines are counting correctly. The audits are done after the election and before the election is certified. Below is section of law regarding audits:

SECTION 5.(a) G.S. 163‑182.1(b) :