Election update
In case you missed these stories in Saturday's paper, here are two election updates for you:
Update: Troxler's website says the swearing in will be on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 10:30 a.m. in the Holshouser Building on the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.
The big question is what happens next. The court didn't lay down a specific remedy but told the lower courts and the State Board of Elections to fix things. One option is to recount the votes, throwing out those cast out of precinct. This option might be appealing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it can be done relatively quickly.
Option #2 is to hold the two elections over. Proponents of this option will point out that the state board was encouraging people to cast provisional ballots and those voters were simply doing what they were told in good faith. Throwing out their votes punishes those voters (somewhere near 12,000 statewide) for following the rules at the time.
Since Saturday's story on this wasn't posted, I'll put it on here after the jump:
From Saturday, Feb. 5, 2005
RALEIGH - A N.C. Supreme Court ruling issued Friday could change the outcomes of both a race for Guilford County commissioner and the contest for state superintendent of public instruction.
The order says that it is illegal for voters to cast ballots outside their precincts on Election Day, throwing out nearly 12,000 votes cast across the state on Nov. 2.
It is a victory for Republicans Trudy Wade and Bill Fletcher.
Wade, an incumbent Guilford County commissioner, trails Democrat John Parks. Fletcher trails Democrat June Atkinson in the state superintendent race.
"I'm very grateful, and I think now we can get an accurate vote count," Wade said Friday afternoon.
Wade has continued to serve as a commissioner until the legal wrangling over her case is sorted out.
Tricia Willoughby, the current state schools chief, will continue to serve until either Atkinson or Fletcher is named the winner.
"We're disappointed in the decision," said Larry Moore, Parks' lawyer. "On the other hand, though, we're happy that the process is moving forward and that we’re getting closer to a final result."
The ruling affects provisional ballots given to voters on Election Day.
Provisional ballots are used when election officials cannot immediately confirm whether a voter is properly registered.
On Nov. 2, many who voted by provisional ballot did so because they went to the wrong precinct.
The Republicans argued that the state constitution requires voters to be in their home precinct on Election Day. The court agreed.
"We conclude that it is but a perfunctory requirement that voters identify their proper precinct and appear within that precinct on Election Day to cast their ballots," Associate Justice George Wainwright wrote for the court.
Lawyers for Parks and the State Board of Elections had argued that legislators had not meant to require voters to cast ballots in their home precincts when they wrote the state's voting laws.
But the high court disagreed, saying that voters had multiple ways to identify their home precinct.
"Indeed, when a voter appears at the wrong polling place, election officials have a statutory duty to assist the voter in finding the correct precinct in which to vote," Wainwright wrote in the court's opinion.
The ruling was criticized by Democracy North Carolina, a nonprofit group that filed a brief in the case.
The "precinct is an obsolete boundary line, given today's technology and mobility," wrote Bob Hall, the group's research director.
"Out-of-precinct voting especially helps lower-income and minority voters," Hall wrote. "To now throw out these votes, to spurn these voters, is terrible and didn’t need to happen."
The ruling does not affect early in-person voting, which occurs before Election Day.
It's unclear how the ruling will affect the outcome of the two races involved.
Lawyers on both sides of the case say they expect a Wake County Superior Court judge to issue an other ruling, filling in technical details the Supreme Court did not.
The case will then go back to the State Board of Elections.
The state board could ask the state’s 100 county election boards to do any number of things.
Robert Hunter, Wade’s lawyer, said he believed the state would have to order a new election in both races.
"We'll certainly be asking them to do that," Hunter said.
Moore said he believed the ballots in question could be found and recounted and a final outcome determined.
"The ballots are physically there," Moore said. "There is no mystery as to whether the votes can be counted."
Hunter said he thought that sort of recount would be “technically difficult."
Wade led Parks by 74 votes at the end of Election Day before provisional votes were counted.
After the provisional votes, Parks took a 243-vote lead.
Although provisional votes generally favored Democratic candidates in the fall election, it's unclear whether the more than 400 votes that were thrown out by Friday's Supreme Court decision gave Parks the victory.
Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Falmlen charged that the justices were pandering to their Republican "political cronies."
"Today is a dark day for democracy in North Carolina," Falmlen said in a prepared statement. "The justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court are elected to fairly and impartially interpret the constitution of our state, not to do the partisan bidding of any political party or candidate."
The Associate Press contributed to this report.
Comments (1)
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Not voting in your own precient is WRONG. By the time you are old enough to vote, you should know where to vote and make your own decisions on who to vote for not having ANYONE tell you who to vote for. No organization should hold so much power that they can control or tell others who to vote for.
Posted on February 7, 2005 3:36 PM