Election Day is here at last

It's Election Day, and I've done my duty, arriving at the polls about 20 minutes after the 6:30 opening to see a line of about two dozen people. It's the longest line I can remember in the nearly 30 years I've been voting in Wilson (though not all of those elections were in my current precinct). With reports of 42 percent of all registered voters having already voted, I was surprised to see the line this morning. A 60 percent turnout would be phenomenal, and that would leave only 20 percent of registered voters to vote today. Could this morning's line portend an even greater turnout — 70 or 75 percent? Such a huge turnout would be unheard of and could mark a new era in politics. The turnout, both in North Carolina and nationally, might be just as interesting as the outcome of the big races.

On Election Day, the projections are looking more and more like a Democratic sweep in North Carolina. I  had thought Republican Pat McCrory, the Charlotte mayor, might shock the Democratic establishment by defeating good ol' gal Bev Perdue. McCrory was running against the Democratic establishment in Raleigh, and he had plenty of ammunition — a congressman, a Council of State member, a speaker of the state House and others in the Democratic power base had all been sentenced to prison. And there was a strong impression of sleaze, if not outright corruption, in Raleigh. But McCrory, after first surging into a lead in the early polls, ran out of steam just as Perdue's ads (some of them paid for by the Democratic Party and interest groups) began pounding McCrory on some specious or contrived issues. In the state's U.S. Senate race, Republican Elizabeth Dole realized too late that she was in a tough race and should have spent the past five years paying more attention to North Carolina. Democrat Kay Hagan, hand-picked by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, looks like a near shoo-in as Dole's campaign never really got off the ground and never had any energy.

The interesting detail in North Carolina might be whether Barack Obama, who has  worked hard to organize this traditionally GOP presidential state, will pull N.C. into the Democratic column. Obama will make it interesting, but I'm still thinking he'll fall just short.

Poll workers this morning were going to extremes to make sure every voter knew that the presidential race is separate from all others, and you have to cast a separate vote for president even if you're voting a straight-party ticket. Each voter was handed a slip of paper explaining this process, and signs re-emphasized the matter. This anomaly goes back to 1968, when Democrats in the legislature worried that the Democratic presidential nominee would drag down state candidates (which was almost certainly the case). But recent studies have shown that a small percentage of voters still haven't figured this out. About 3 percent of N.C. voters have failed to vote for president. Furthermore, this year it looks like Obama might actually boost the Democratic candidates down the ballot.

So is it time for the Democrats who run the state to rescind their 1968 rule separating the presidential race from the rest of the ballot? Pending today's outcome, Democrats (who will assuredly still control the General Assembly)  might want to reconsider this rule.