Reply #25: plenty of work for volunteers, and comments from BlueNC

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

actually, if someone wants to get all of the SBOE
state data by precinct and download it - that would be nice.

Meanwhile, there are many other issues at play in
Mecklenburg, that could have caused the undervote.

Theres quite a bit more about the politics and
how that came into play, over at www.bluenc.org
where Southern Dem cross posted his/her blog.

http://www.bluenc.com/time-to-doff-the-tin-foil-hats-no-suspicious-undervote-in-meck-nc-08

Personally, having seen Mecklenburg's ballot layout, I can see it
having an effect, but there really is no way to ever know for
sure what happened.

Some comments posted at Blue nc
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Also, its hard to compare Mecklenburg to the other counties for a variety of reasons, mostly surrounding local politics, campaign focus and just general knowledge of a race going on.

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4% is very very normal. Usually the president has 2% undervote. Given that this was a non-presidential year, in an area where Larry had low name-id and many thought Mel Watt and not Hayes was their rep it makes 4% seem lower than I would have expected.

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Just as important, in Florida there were reports that very day of problems with voting. I have yet to talk to a single voter or heard of any voter having trouble voting for Larry. And considering I spent all of election day in almost constant contact with people at almost every precinct in Mecklenburg I would have expected to have heard about something by now.

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in FL-13 you had the candidate (Jennings) who "should have" won that county actually lose the county, and thereby the race, as a result of this abnormally high undervote.

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In NC-08, we had Kissell win Mecklenburg with a higher percentage of the vote (68%) than we've seen in a loooong time....and yet some still claimed an unusual undervote/conspiracy/blah/blah/blah that somehow withheld additional votes from Kissell.
Makes no sense.

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...I wish we could find some irregularity or other reason to explain away Larry's loss. But we can't. We fell short a few hundred votes because we fell short in our efforts to get out the vote. It's that simple.

I think it was PJ O'Rourke who said the problem with free will is finding someone to blame your problems on...and when you do find someone, it's amazing how often their picture turns up on your driver's license.

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Folks
If you care about Kissell's campaign, send some money.

He was left with a debt at the end of his race against Robin Hayes. He announced that he is running again.
Two weeks ago I was told the Campaign debt was $80,000.

Help Kissell.
Kissell for Congress
106 East Main Street
PO Box 1530
Biscoe, NC 27209
1-877- 4 KISSELL
(1-877-454-7735)
FAX: [phone]
[email protected]

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Unscientific as they are, media interviews at polling locations in NC 100 found people specifically not voting in Jim Black's race. There was 37% turnout in the Black race (and I think that's inflated because of the absentee x-factor), and that's about average for NC House races in Meck Co.

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