Primary Day: The Live Blog
Note: updates posted in reverse chronological order.
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(10 p.m.) Okay folks, it’s time to put out the paper and we have a couple of funky races coming down to the wire. Check back here in the morning for links to all the stories. And more updates will be on the main page: www.news-record.com
And remember, the Guilford County results you are seeing do not include mail-in absentee, curb-side or provisional ballots.
Have a good night.
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(9:41 p.m.) The Senate 26 race between Ken Hux of Rockingham and Rick Miller of Guilford County is coming down to the wire.
But memo to Sen. Katie Dorsett: If you have 88 percent of the vote with only two precincts out, it’s okay to claim victory.
Memo to all poll watchers: there are at least 82 votes (mail in absentee ballots) that you are not seeing in your vote totals at home.
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(9:08 p.m.) I think we can safely call a few races. Sen. Katie Dorsett will remain Senator. She’s winning her primary by a large margin and has no Republican challenger come fall.
And Sheriff BJ Barnes appears to have an easy win in his Republican nomination fight.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Democratic sheriff’s race looks to be going to a run off unless something changes real darn fast.
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(8:42 p.m.)Pol watch: Candidates Berkley Blanks, BJ Barnes, James Zimmerman, Samuel Spagnola, Katie Dorsett are in the house.
Blogger watch: Jerry McClough is here talking up his new PAC, the TRIAD IMPAC.
Supporter watch: Supporters of both DA candidates, Hejazi and Henderson, are here.
Media watch: All us folks from the N+R are here, along with the Rhino and HPE and some kind of lost looking television folks.
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(8:34 p.m.) The BOE appears to have things under control, expect results shortly.
By the way, Scoop just say former County Commissioner Bob Landreth in the hallway. When we asked, “what are you running for,” Landreth quipped, “HOME.”
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(8:28 p.m.) Sooo...you might be wondering where the results are. At this point in the evening, the county usually have a fair amount of precinct reporting to the web already.
Well, they’re stacking up the cartridges from the voting machines just fine. However, there seems to be a problem with the database that collects all that data. Elections Director George Gilbert and his staff are working to fix this, but he doesn’t look like a happy man right now.
Meanwhile, at the courthouse, more than two dozen pols and operatives wait with baited breath. Oh, and some journalists are griping that they’re going to blow their deadlines.
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(8:11 p.m.) Still no results, but there are about a dozen people milling about the courthouse now.
By the way, if you want to see results without the annoying scroll, click here.
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(8 p.m.) No results yet, but they’re working on it, so soon. I'm told to expect a few bumps along the way, as they learn to process they extra gear from the new voting equipment.
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(7:44 p.m.) Sen. Katie Dorsett is in the house!
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(7:42 p.m.) Well, the crowd here at the courthouse is less than a crow. Sheriff BJ Barnes is on hand, along with three reporters and two other onlookers. But it’s early yet, it takes folks a while to get in from the polls. As of this writing, no results are in yet.
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(7:15 p.m.) You have 15 minutes to go vote, if you haven’t already.
Meanwhile, it’s time for the Scoop crew to pack up and head to the courthouse for an exciting evening of results watching. See you after the 7:30 p.m. turn.
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(6:45 p.m.) Why are we paying so much attention to the Democratic primary in the Guilford County District Attorney race?
One reason: no Republican has won the post since 1962, says courts reporter Eric Collins.
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(6:37 p.m.)From intrepid County Govt. Reporter Nate DeGraff:
The winner of the Republican primary for District 3 county commissioner will be favored to win in November, when that person will square off against Democrat Ray Riffe.
Why? Well, unlike Guilford County as a whole, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, the 40,000 registered voters in District 3 include 4,500 more Republicans than Democrats. That’s good news for tonight’s winner.
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(6:13 p.m.) Here are more links to election results from around the region from N+R web guru Michael Grossman:
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(6:04 p.m.) Scoop just heard from Guilford County elections director George Gilbert. The county’s new voting machines seem to be working well so far, he said.
“We’ve had fewer problems than I anticipated with more than 600 new pieces of equipment,” Gilbert said.
Problems? Problems? What problems George?
“The biggest problem is keeping the printers running. They occasionally jam,” Gilbert said.
For those coming late to the game, having a paper record for each electronic ballot cast was a big point of debate at the state and local levels. The idea was that if the computers were boom (either malfunctioned or were intentionally messed with) a paper record would stand to testify how people really voted.
Gilbert didn’t like the idea of paper ballots – he testified vigorously against using them – but passed up the opportunity to say “I told you so.” Yeah, he was pretty much thinking it, but it was still nice of him to take a pass.
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(4:32 p.m.) Neither of Guilford County’s two sitting Republican state House members have primaries tonight. But in some parts of the state, those GOP legislative primaries are where the real action is. As Gary Pearce over at Talking About Politics put it:
For years now, Pope Republicans and Morgan Republicans have fought a civil war. It’s like the Shiites and Sunnis without the bombings.
Click here for more background.
It will be interesting to see whether this primary fight finally purges the bad blood in the state GOP, or becomes just one more bump in the rocky relationship between the two factions.
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(4:15 p.m.) Sometime after 7:30 p.m., you should be able to find online election results at the following spots:
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(3:51 p.m.) As of about 3:30 p.m. or so, I've heard no reports of major problems with new voting equipment here in Guilford County or elsewhere. Anyone? Bueller?
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(3:45 p.m.) Click here for a drinking game for this evening.
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(3:17 p.m.) We have word from our Rockingham bureau that election results may be slower than normal coming in tonight. According to Rockingham Editor Bill Hancock, precincts used to send their results to headquarters via dial up. Under their new system, precinct officials have to drive into their main office. Also, a sizeable number of voters have apparently been reassigned to new precincts lately, which is expected to cause some delays. Results from our neighbors to the north are expected to post sometime around 9:30 p.m. (Guilford County has always had this issue, although the BOE posts rolling updates throughout the evening, starting shortly after 7:30 p.m. with early voting totals.)
In addition to their local races, Rockingham results figure into Senate District 26 (the Democrats vying to run against Phil Berger this fall) and U.S. House 13.
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(2:55 p.m.) Before I get calls from The Chalkboard folks, no there are no school board primaries today. You’ll have to wait until November to vent your education-related frustration at the polls.
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(12:58 p.m.)As mentioned earlier, we here at Inside Scoop are live blogging the primary. How is live blogging any different from, you know, regular blogging? We’re aiming to update frequently with fascinating tid bits that keep you coming back for more. All the updates will be put into the same post (this one) and start below the introduction.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, click here for a fine, if snarky, example.
A few house keeping notes.
- First, there IS an election today, no matter how cleverly the authorities appear to have concealed it from all but 7 percent of eligible voters. Those who show up will in some cases choose the winners as there is no opposition in the fall (as in the Senate District 28 primary) while others will be choosing contestants for the general election.
- Polls will be open until 7:30 p.m., so read up here and here and then go vote.
Now that’s taken care of, updates will start sometime late this afternoon and getting more frequent as polls close.
Comments (1)
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Regarding the printer jams on the voting machines - while Election Director George Gilbert didn't say "I told you so", we will.
Counties had a choice in touchscreen or optical scan, and Mr. Gilbert chose the touchscreen knowing that more work and troubleshooting would be required with their "toilet paper" ballot.
NC Verified Voting and computer scientists opposed the touchscreens with the ballot on a reel, we urged the use of optical scan machines.
Let's hope that Mr. Gilbert doesn't use the failures (that he predicted in the first place)
of the toilet paper style ballot as a rationalization to take this important safeguard away from the voters.
Election Director Gilbert knew that the more reliable paper ballot would be the one on the optical scan machines. The fact is, most counties recognized this, with 75 counties buying optical scanners - up from 48 counties with OS before 2006.
Purchasing optical scan machines and ballot marking devices would save the county at least $4-$5 million dollars, money that could have been spent on your schools.
Gilbert tried to pass a plan to reduce poll locations by 75%, in order to make his choice of touchscreens seem more affordable.
Cutting services to voters is a bad idea, just as
is paperless voting.
The number one function of the voting machine must be to protect the vote - if the digital record is lost, then the paper record will be there.
It is nice if the machines make the election director's job easier, but that should not be given higher priority than the security and accuracy of the vote.
Voters should not be forced to depend completely on a digital record of their vote, something that can't be verified except forensically.
If the problems with the touchscreen printers are serious, then Guilford County should purchase optical scanners instead.
Then you could also purchase the ballot marking devices, which help a broader range of disabled voters than the touchscreens do.
Posted on May 4, 2006 9:46 AM