Undervote back to normal?
In 2000 and 2004 a lot of North Carolinians didn't cast ballots in the presidential race -- far more than the roughly 1 percent that normally might choose not to vote for any candidate in that race. The falloff those years was up to three times the normal rate. How about Tuesday? The State Board of Elections Web site reports that 4,293,645 ballots were cast overall, but 4,248,285 ballots were cast in the presidential race. That's a falloff of 45,360, if my math is right -- .0105644 of a falloff. Here's the elections board website, in case the numbers get updated.
2pm update: Joyce McCloy of the N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting reminds me that a lot of those in the falloff category were provisional ballots, and that may be an indication that there were even fewer ballots in the category of "undervote" or "falloff" than first appeared.
Update Thursday: the actual falloff in voting was more like 24,000 -- well below what voting experts say could normally be expected among voters who choose not to vote for a presidential candidate.
As I've said, I don't like straight-ticket voting. I'm a ticket-splitter. But in this case it certainly appears that election officials did a good job reminding voters that North Carolina's straight-ticket voting process does NOT include the presidential race. Still, it's something the legislature ought to fix. Any system that fools even a few voters into thinking they've voted needs work.
And it makes you wonder why 45,360 people didn't vote for any candidate.
Oh -- and the elections board says turnout was 68.56 percent of the state's 6,262,566 voters.
