This is NOT an excuse, but being a resident of NC--Orange County where the vote AGAINST was almost 79%--it is interesting
to see via this graphic how many counties voted in the 40-50% AGAINST range. Higher turnout just MIGHT have made a difference.
We've seen the numbers: only about 20+% of eligible voters were able to successfully change the NC Constitution to incorporate
bigotry and a declaration of unequal rights that will, eventually, be overturned. It probably will take a decision from the US Supreme Court.

[IMG][/IMG]

Narrative from the creator of the map:

I created this graphic showing the 2012 vote results against Amendment One because I wanted to understand this beautiful and strange state of North Carolina.

One can easily observe that all of the major centers of education and economic development reflect an awareness of the immoral nature of this amendment and the potentially dire consequences.

I live on an island in Orange County, the only county with over 75% against Amendment 1. I'm personally surprised by the strong showing in Watauga and also Eastern NC. Dare County is the lone coastal county to bust 50%, though New Hanover County was close.

As an activist, a graphic artist and programmer (among other activities) I was compelled to share this information. I saw Jason Baker's original graphic, and utilized my research, statistics, and visual skills to dig a bit more deeply into the details. My additions include county lines and a couple more notations to denote counties that were close to the 40 and 50% lines.

Please share this and extend the Creative Commons license. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
— with Kirk Ross, Ruby Sinreich and Jason Baker.

We had record primary turnout in NC today, but that record was only 34.37% of eligible voters. That's sad, very sad. The turnout when Obama took NC in 2008 was 70% and NC was among the states with the highest voter turnout in the country.

http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/36596/80741/en/vt.html

These counties voted AGAINST the Amendment: Orange 78.9%, Durham 69.8%, Wake 56.8%, Mecklenburg 54%,Chatham 53.9%, Buncombe 51.5%, and Watauga 50.8%

With a larger turnout, it's just possible this thing could have been defeated.

Take a look at the statistics for voter turnout in NC, and it becomes clear (or do you really think it's a coincidence?) why this
Amendment was put on a PRIMARY ballot--when voter turnout is expected to be low. The people behind this Amendment definitely
knew what they were doing.

http://www.ncsbe.gov/content.aspx?ID=70