NC is red no more. Maybe Bluish-purple.

[ncteechur]

2.8 million registered Democrats
2.0 million registered Republicans
Democratic Governor
Split Senate (US) Hagan and Burr
Mostly Democratic House members
Mostly Democratic General Assembly

And finally, Obama for President by about 12,500 votes.

Info per NC Board of Elections website.

[ccharles000]

1. I voted for Obama here in Greensboro

[RedLetterRev]

23. I work in Greensboro but voted in Caswell

which is bright blue! :woohoo:

I noticed that Caswell's northern neighbor, Pittsylvania County in VA also went Blue, and the counties to the northeast of it. Neat stuff when fairly rural counties to the north of a very rural Caswell also go Blue. Caswell is about as country as it gets, so y'all stop ribbing us hayseeds :D

[Inspired]

2. Congratulations North Carolina! This was an extraordinary effort and you made us proud!

:yourock:

:applause:

[riverdale]

3. Congratulations to NC for becoming the newest blue state!

Two real shitstains have been scrubbed from the toilet bowl known as US Congress: Robin Hayes (the outsourcing terror of Cabarrus County) and Elizabeth Dole ("Stay classy Salisbury"). Look for E.Dole to un-carpet-bag herself back to DC permanently now.

[calimary]

4. They finally gave it to Obama?

COOL!

GREAT WORK everyone!!! And a LOT of it, I'm certain!!!!

[DCBob]

6. No. Still not official. Still counting provisionals.

Hopefully today.

[calimary]

7. Thanks! Sheesh - gonna make everybody wait.

Well, it's awfully nice that we already know the HIGHLY unchangeable outcome! North Carolina will be the gravy.

My take on the whole thing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7803761

[Minimus]

9. Not yet - they have to count provisional ballots and we will know on Nov 20th. They have unoffically

said Obama is the winner since McCain needs 70% of the provisional ballots to overtake Obama's lead.

We are anxiously waiting for th offical announcement.

[DCBob]

5. NC and IN were the most shocking red states to turn blue.

It is remarkable most would have never thought possible.

[No Elephants]

8. NC has been blue since before America was a nation. Only its ballots have been red. All people are

voting now, thanks to the vision of a community organizer. Hallelujah!

[GreenInNC]

10. percentages

46% Dem
32% Rep
22% Una

[marions ghost]

11. NC needs to get rid of archaic ballot format

in which the office of US President is not counted in straight-ticket selection unless separately marked. See excellent recent article about it below. Writer calls it basically fraudulent.

(Appeared Nov 4 2008 in Raleigh N&O):

"NC Ballot Flirting with Fraud"
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/1280860.html
Jack Betts, The Charlotte Observer

Quote from article above:

"I don't like straight-ticket voting. But if we've got a ballot that fools some voters into thinking they've voted for president when they haven't, this state is engaging, intentionally or not, in fraud."

[GreenInNC]

12. you can blame our party for this layout

[marions ghost]

14. I blame both parties for perpetuating it

unfortunately it now tends to depress presidential votes. It's obsolete. I hope this format will be changed like it was in South Carolina. (NC is now the only state that does this). If you're going to have straight-ticket at all, it should include all candidates.

From the article:

"Duke University researchers found that as many as 3.15 percent of voters here did not cast presidential ballots in 2000, and 2.57 percent in 2004."

-------------
A related issue I asked the election judge about at my voting place on Tuesday:

If the voter marks BOTH "straight-ticket" AND marks ovals for partisan offices OTHER THAN president, she said that the scanner will kick out the form as "error." Then the ballot is voided and a procedure is followed for that.

BUT on the other hand, the scanner does NOT void the ballot if straight-party is marked and NO choice is marked for President. It seems the same "error" process could be followed. So I would argue along with the writer of the article that there is acknowledgment of an inherent discrepancy. This would constitute the charge of fraud against voters.

***Also what happens if the voter is using a touchscreen--does this trigger the "error" message? I don't know the answer to that, but since 40 North Carolina counties use touchscreens, somebody has the answer somewhere. I'd be willing to bet there is NO error message, no way to catch the lack of a vote for president. (These are Diebold machines after all).

[GreenInNC]

16. touchscreens in Mecklenburg

Our machines will prompt us at the end if we have missed a race and will not let us cast our vote until we acknowledge this.

If you hit the straight ticket button it automatically puts a check mark beside each Democratic race.

[marions ghost]

20. OK thanks

So it would appear that the touchscreens will not let you mark "straight-party" AND partisan races, causing an "error" --it does it for you automatically.

Will the machines prompt you if you omit the US PRESIDENT box though? I guess you may not know this since you probably did not make that mistake.:)

[GreenInNC]

21. yes

It prompts you for all races you missed. I have a friend here at work that is a Repub but could not bring herself to vote for McCain because of Palin so she was prompted. I didn't vote in some of the judges races where they were running unopposed and was prompted.

[marions ghost]

22. and so

in the case of your friend who was prompted on the Presidential race, what happened when she was prompted? In other words how did she indicate that she wished to omit the presidential race at that point?

[GreenInNC]

24. a page pops up

after the confirmation page pops up you are given the choice to go back to the races you missed or you can move forward in the process.

[KevinHarring]

13. There

will have to be a rebalance at this point.

[ShenandoahAspen]

15. Yep and in 2010...

We will send Burr packing. I'm hoping Easley will run against him.
It's so nice to be from a blue state!

[ncgrits]

19. Ain't it though? Feels mighty fine! nt

[Jennicut]

17. I say NC is gonna be blue, McCain won't overtake Obama in the provisionals

This is so cool! Obama is reaching into the south now with this.

[NC_Nurse]

18. Finally. I'm so proud.

[mnhtnbb]

25. Also added one more Dem House Member. Repub incumbent Robin Hayes of NC -08

was defeated by Dem challenger Larry Kissell.

The NC delegation to the US House of Reps will now include 8 Dems and 5 Repubs.

Repub Walter Jones, Jr. who split with Bush on the Iraq War, was re-elected to NC District 03

[SIMPLYB1980]

26. I'm so proud of my state! It feels good to see NC turn Blue!

:toast: