Instant analysis is like instant coffee: It'll do in a pinch, but it's not as satisfying as the real thing. That said, WakePol will now offer up a few thoughts on last night's elections.
* BLAME IT ON THE RAIN?
Before the elections were over, both sides were questioning whether the heavy rain would affect the election. Some thought it may have discouraged all but the most motivated voters to show up. But pretty good for a so-called with no major races so that doesn't appear to be a factor.
* VOTE, PROVISIONALLY: That said, Elections Director Cherie Poucher said there were a huge number of provisional ballots because of the rain. Apparently, many voters decided to stop wherever they saw a "Vote" sign rather than brave the weather and traffic any farther. Those will have to be tallied by hand, as poll workers determine which races should be counted.
* MODERATE MAJORITY: With Republicans and sticking around and Democrat joining the other two Democrats, look for commissioners to stay on a moderate course. Newcomer will be on the conservative end. But as a longtime City Council member and former mayor, he'll do more bridge-building than the go-it-alone .
With that, the long-running feature will officially become the Split Vote Watch. Polls open at 6:30 a.m.
and close at 7:30 p.m. today.
First, you'll have four county commissioner races: vs. ; vs. ; vs.
; and vs. .
Then, you'll decide between and for sheriff, and and for Superior Court clerk.
There are also races for N.C. House and Senate, U.
S. House of Representatives, state Supreme Court, District Court judges, and the Soil and Water Conservation Board.
Click for a Voters Guide to all Wake County races, or check out previous WakePol posts on , , and .
If you've registered to vote, you should have a voter card that lists your . You can also look up your voter registration , or call the elections office at 856-6240.
What if I cannot get into the polling place due to a physical disability?
You can vote from your car. Look for the "Curbside Voting" sign and park there. An elections official will bring you a ballot and a pen.
Help! I've moved in the past month. Where do I vote?
You can still vote at your old precinct, as long as you're a registered voter.
What if I moved more than a month ago?
You have two options.
1) Go to your old polling place, get a transfer form, then go to your new polling place and vote. Upside: All your votes will count. Downside: A lot of driving.
2) Go to your new polling place and cast a provisional ballot. Upside: Less driving. Downside: If you use the wrong ballot, some of your votes will not count.
Call the Board of Elections at 856-6240 to find out your new polling place.
When can I see results?
About 26,000 people cast their ballots early in Wake County.
That's about 5 percent of the 513,998 registered voters, for those keeping track at home.
For a comparison, 22,816 Wake residents voted early in 2002. ONE-STOP STOPPING: Last day for is today.
EXPLORIS EXPLORED: On WRAL/N O's anti-bonds Americans for Prosperity state director was asked about his group's . In response, he criticized the pro-bonds for taking money from the museum. Reports show an $800 in-kind contribution for on Aug.
29. Museum officials say it was a deal with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce in exchange for promotion of their exhibit
LIBERAL DETAILERS: Earlier, that had done a lot of work for local conservative groups. Turns out they have a liberal counterpart: .
The Democratic candidate from Fuquay-Varina in N.C. House District 37 has registered Web sites for , , , and , natch.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Greer Beaty: Male or female? . Which reminds us: .
...
Sheriff candidate John Baker Jr. filing lawsuit against his opponent, incumbent Donnie Harrison. Garner optometrist, meantime, wishes his wife had Harrison.
Or ? ..
. . .
.. It's neighbor vs.
neighbor in . In too. Voters are supposed to be protected from campaigners when they cast their ballots.
Under , it is illegal to "distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election-related activity" within 50 feet of a polling place.
But what happens when that includes a street?
Around 10 a.
m. today, WakePol was sitting in the Wake County Board of Elections on Salisbury Street.
Outside, a pickup truck pulled up to the red light pulling a trailer with a sign that read "Just say no to a billion dollar school bond tax.
" While the truck was stopped at the light, it was clearly within 50 feet of the polling place.
Elections officials said they have had problems before with trucks parked nearby or blaring loudspeakers, but they have never discussed whether it was legal to drive down the street. Commissioner candidate third TV ad takes aim at his opponent.
In the ad, the narrator notes that Coble "has lived all his life here in Wake County and served as mayor of Raleigh."
The narrator notes that his opponent, , "moved here from California three years ago."
Then, the narrator, who sounds a bit like , says that Koopman "has never bothered to vote in a local election.
"
That's a little misleading.
Koopman, whose voter registration can be read , began living part time in Raleigh in March of 2003 and permanently moved here in April of 2004. He registered to vote that June.
He voted in the November 2004 elections, which included , along with the president, governor and other statewide races.
But he did not vote in the October 2005 election, which included races along with local bonds, but not any state or national races.
In the ad, the narrator goes on to say that Koopman "says he wants to raise your taxes," while Coble "cut taxes and improved services.
"
Koopman supports charging on new homes or levying a on home sales to raise money for schools as an alternative to raising . He said raise the , but he did not rule it out.
As on WakePol, Coble cut taxes during his time at Raleigh City Hall.
Correction: An earlier version of this post indicated that Rodger Koopman skipped a school board runoff in November of 2005. He does not live in that district and was not eligible to vote in that election.
Click to watch a Quicktime version of the ad, or below to read a transcript.
Forget about the . The is having its own fun this week.
The pro-bonds group will host a get-out-the-vote rally Tuesday for the Nov.
7 bonds. (Laugh if you will, but has already started.)
The event will be from 5:30 to 7 p.
m. at the 's restaurant.
An e-mail from the bonds group says it will be "a fun time for all involved.
" And there's more:
* Food, music and fun!
* Welcome from Friends of Wake County Co-Chairs Ann Goodnight and Dr. Bill Atkinson
* Yard signs galore!
Come show your support for bonds to build public schools and keep Wake County's future bright!!
WakePol has on the over-use of exclamation points for events like this.
But we will note the pointed absence of one after the welcome from the co-chairs. ELECTION=ROUND-UP: In the , 's fired this shot against the school board: "They view the taxpayers of Wake County like a herd of cows. They just take them into the barn for tax dollars and milk them every so often.
" Earlier, he compared them to alcoholics who can't be trusted with money. Pro-bonds deputy Ed Bonner of the put on his white hat: "It's almost criminal, and it's a real shame that our public servants who are very courageous people and make a lot of tough decisions are referred to as being like a bunch of alcoholics and cow-herders." Drunken cowboys?
Paging .
AD HOMINEM? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Americans for Prosperity unveiled against the bonds.
Later this month, they'll turn the keys over to a separate group with the name Citizens For Quality Education. Sound familiar? It's the name of the group that defeated the 1999 bonds.
But who's footing the bill for now? DeLuca says that "several parents" paid for the ad, but won't identify them. As a , Americans For Prosperity argues it doesn't have to file a campaign finance report that would name donors.
So far, has not received any complaints.
HOWDY Y'ALL: Jon Goldberg is upset that American Idol got than any U.S.
president. No, he's not a disgruntled or fan. He's a Charlotte attorney, raised in Raleigh, who wants to boost voter turnout in North Carolina.
His solution: . The nonpartisan, ad-free Web site includes candidate information, links, and a related . It also has a nifty to remind you when to head to the polls.
Its : "Register. Research. Then, y'all vote.
" How low was the turnout in Tuesday s primary?
Let s take a look at the numbers. In 1996, the primary election had 22.
5 percent turnout. In 1998, it was 11.2 percent.
In 2000, 18.7 percent showed up at the polls. In 2002, 21.
9 percent. And in 2004, 17.3 percent.
How many voters bothered to cast a ballot this week?
According to unofficial results, 5.8 percent, or a paltry 29,352 of the 502,726 who could have.
Elections Director Cherie Poucher said the low turnout was partly due to the fact that the primary was a so-called blue-moon election, in which there are no contests for president, governor or U.S. Senate at the top of the ballot.
That happens once every 12 years in North Carolina.
The only real statewide races were judicial, Poucher said. I think that had something to do with it.
There were also really very few legislative primaries in our area for both parties.
Not that she s complaining. Lower turnout means fewer ballots to count.
It was an easy one, she said. There's an election today?
Yup.
What's on the ballot?
That depends, are you a Democrat or a Republican?
The big race for local Democrats is between Mark Perry and Nancy (Lorrin) Freeman for clerk of Superior Court.
The central issue in the race is how to use technology to modernize the clerk's office. Click for a story on the race. Brief bios: and .
Online Voters Guide: and . Previous WakePol posts: and .
The big race for local Republicans is between Tony Gurley and Michael Luther for District 3 county commissioner.
Gurley was elected to the seat in 2002. The central issue in the race is the fall school bonds. Click for a story on the race.
Brief bios: and . Online Voters Guide: and . Campaign Cash: and .
Interviews: and . Previous WakePol posts: and .
You can still vote.
You will have to choose between the Republican or Democratic ballots. In the event of a runoff, you will only be allowed to vote that party's ballot, but you will return to being an unaffiliated voter afterward.
Are there any endorsements?
Yes. Click on the name to see endorsements from: , and the .
When can I vote?
Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.
m.
Where do I vote?
The Board of Elections should have sent you a voter card that lists your polling place.
You can also look up your voter registration , or call the elections office at 856-6240. Here's a tough sales pitch: Pay more taxes.
Given the choice, many voters would rather not.
And when the tax is linked to a controversial government program, even more will say no thanks.
Commissioners there got permission from the legislature to levy an extra one-cent sales tax to help replenish sand on coastal beaches.
But a grassroots group called the used a to force a referendum last week.
The tax was repealed by nearly 80 percent of voters.
The defeat calls into question Wake's recent efforts to add a half-cent local sales tax to generate $30 million for school construction. A last session would have given Wake and 29 other counties that ability, if voters approved in a referendum.
How much does the Board of Elections hate touch-screen voting?
Let's just say they don't want to touch it with a 10-foot poll booth.
This morning, board members met again to discuss how to handle new state and federal laws that have caused their current voting machines to be decertified.
Their choice is between buying new optical-scan ballot counters or switching to direct-record touch-screen machines similar to an ATM.
The problem is that Wake County has nearly 200 precincts -- each with its own ballot -- and the machines can only count 10 precincts at a time. That's not too much of a problem on Election Day, when voters cast their ballots at the precincts.
But it causes serious problems for early voting, when voters from all over the county converge on a couple sites.
Using optical-scan ballots means having stacks of ballots and multiple machines at each early voting site. Both are security risks.
A single touch-screen machine could handle all of the different ballots, however.
Still, the board dislikes touch-screen voting so much that it decided this morning to cut back to only one early voting site in the May 2 election. There are usually four in a primary.
It's only temporary, however. Board members hope that they can get an optical-scan counter that can handle more precincts in time for the November election. Advocates of optical-scan ballots can take heart from the tone of discussion at the Board of Elections.
The board met this morning to debate the merits of touch-screen direct-record voting machines versus traditional optical-scan ballots.
Both are required to allow elections staffers to do hand recounts.
But board members were not happy about the thermal paper used by the touch-screen iVotronic machines.
They said it would fade and disintegrate too quickly compared to old-fashioned ballots.
Board chairman John Gilbert called it a toilet paper trail.
The idea of having to recount all those ballots is just giving me the willies, he said.
Wake County took a close look at some new Monday.
But don't set down that hammer just yet,
The county is considering in the May primary.
That would allow it to exploit a loophole in the that requires counties to buy new voting machines this month.
The provision is designed for smaller counties that don't use machines currently. But with expected in the primary, it could work in Wake too.
Elections Director Cherie Poucher said that hand-counting would be a one-time thing to give the county a few more months to buy new voting machines, train staff and lobby legislators to give them more options.
Wake County will soon spend a couple million dollars on new voting machines.
But you'll get a chance to vote for your favorite machine first.
In early January, the board of elections will hold an open house to allow the public to check out its choice of equipment.
The selection is narrow: The state has only certified of Omaha, Neb. (Diebold Election Systems last week rather than reveal the code it uses to run machines.)
Still, the county will have a choice between optical scan systems like it currently uses and direct-record machines similar to an ATM.
The forum will be held in the first-floor conference room of the Wake County office building at 337 South Salisbury St. from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan.
9.
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