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.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Hey Jack, Do you know what the turnout was in previous years?
Oh and what do you think about more than 2 parties? Maybe parties shouldn't have to apply to the state to get on the ballot?
Jack, you say "As I've said, I don't like straight-ticket voting. I'm a ticket-splitter". That certainly is your privilege. The broad spectrum of voters appears to like straight ticket voting very much, however. Stats from the State Board of Elections at
show that of the 4,293,645 persons who voted this year, 2,133,176 cast straight ticket ballots, 49.7%of the total!
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/7937/13284/en/summary.html
That page shows interesting info on how many straight ticket votes were cast for each party.
-Gerry Cohen
"The broad spectrum of voters appears to like straight ticket voting"
Because it's easier, than actually researching individual candidates and issues to make an informed choice, perhaps?
"Because it's easier, than actually researching individual candidates and issues to make an informed choice, perhaps?"
Some voters have a strong identification to a particular party, rather than a particular candidate. While one half of the voters may say "I vote for the candidate not the party", and the other half of the voters vote for the party, why suggest that the one side is wrong? Maybe they are both right.
Voters got a huge dose of voter education about straight ticket voting "Tar Heel Style" this year. Before this year, voter education about this has been almost non-existant. We were told: "we've always done it this way.".
The national average undervote rate for President is 1%. NC was way over that.
Then NC became a swing state, and national attention was showered on the issue. Local media did an excellent job.
This year, when you went to the polls, most voters received a palm card from the republican and democratic party greeters, and in most counties poll workers gave voters a flyer and a verbal explanation of "Tar Heel Style" straight ticket voting.
Voters have never gotten so much yet so simple of instructions when voting.
It seems to have made a difference.
If - lawmakers keep "Tar-Heel" style straight ticket voting, then voter education, including flyers and verbal instruction should be mandatory.
Until we have a firm grasp on the data, I am waiting before I celebrate.
The Charlotte Observer deserves thanks for their efforts to educate a very large audience of voters, so thank you for that.
Joyce McCloy
Post a Comment