Election notes: Counting absentees delayed totals in Pitt

The Daily Reflector

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The outcome of many contested general election races remained uncertain until late Tuesday because of vote counting in Pitt County.

Elections Director Dave Davis said officials were busy opening and counting more than 2,300 mail-in absentee ballots from 2-10:30 p.m.

The process delayed putting those votes and about 50,000 One-Stop early voting ballot records into the computer system that included Tuesday's votes.

“We had all three (elections) board members, two full-time staff and two part-time staff opening up envelopes and straightening (the ballots) out,” Davis said.

Because the ballots are folded to mail, some had to be inserted into scanners numerous times.

Nearly 67 percent of Pitt County's registered voters, or 51,032 people, voted absentee or cast ballots during the three-week One Stop early voting period, according to preliminary data. Just under 30 percent of the votes were cast on Tuesday.

Races for Pitt County Board of Commissioners and state House and Senate remained uncertain until those totals were entered at about 11 p.m.

The Pitt County Board of Elections has a practice of counting the mail-in absentee ballots before entering those totals and the One Stop records into the state system, Davis said. He said officials were caught off guard Tuesday by the large number of paper ballots. They have been able to count them quickly in the past. No discussion had taken place about altering the practice of counting them before loading the computerized One Stop records, Davis said.

Compared to the 2004 presidential election — when long lines delayed results until nearly 3 a.m. — Tuesday's count went smoothly, Davis said.

“For a presidential election, for us to be done before 11 p.m., I think we have performed admirably, the board and the staff,” he said.

GOP will bounce back, expert says

The Republican Party will bounce back from its significant losses in last night's election, an East Carolina University political expert says.

Jody Baumgartner, assistant professor of political science at ECU, said gloom surrounding the GOP is understandable, but common among parties losing a presidential election.

“You are going to get that after every presidential loss,” Baumgartner said. “Some of it makes sense, but some of it is just overreaction. We heard the same thing from the Democratic Party in 2004, and look at how things have changed.”

Baumgartner said he believes the unprecedented success of Barack Obama's campaign, and the inability of Republican nominee John McCain to excite people, played a large role in Obama's ascent to the White House.

The presidential election, Baumgartner says, highlighted an uneasy alliance that exists between fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and foreign policy hawks.

“Those groups are sort of the three components of the Republican Party, and this election highlighted the fact that there was no consensus candidate among them,” Baumgartner said.

Baumgartner said he believes Democrats were able to broaden their control of Congress during this year's election due to the effects of an unpopular Republican president and an unpopular war.

Democrats are guaranteed at least a 56-44 majority in the Senate and a 252-172 majority in the House. Some races remained undecided.

“I have trouble with pinning too much significance on one thing,” Baumgartner said. “What we know about American politics is the more things seem to change, the more they actually look the same that they always have. Every time a party loses an election, they cannibalize each other for a little while, but then they bounce right back. It is a two-party system, and one of them has not died.”

Local results boost Democrats

General election races in Pitt County on Tuesday mirrored statewide results with Democrats winning most of the county's votes.

Among the top tier of federal and state races, incumbent U.S. Rep. Walter Jones was the only Republican returned to office by Pitt County voters.

Locally, Democrat Ephraigm Smith defeated incumbent Tom Coulson for the Pitt County Board of Commissioners' District B seat.