So much for that big turnout some expected.
Statewide only 30 percent of voters turned out, the same rate as in Mecklenburg County. That’s an all-time new low for a general election in the state, which had been 42 percent in the last blue moon cycle back in 1994.
Some are blaming the weather, gray and kinda raining. Like that never happens in November in North Carolina. Stop with the excuses.
For one, with all the various early voting options now available is easier to vote than ever before. Information about candidates has never been easier to find, get, and double-check. All things being equal, turnout should be higher than in 1994. So we are down to the fact that voters in the state simply do not care to weigh in for the choices out there, such as they are.
In fact, in far too many General Assembly races there was no choice, the political duopoly in Raleigh saw to that. Locally we had the beginnings of an actual issues-based campaign for the county commission slots, but it remains to be seen if that trend will continue in non-blue moon cycles.
