Your vote on Tuesday will really count

by Tom Campbell, Executive Producer and Moderator, NC SPIN, June 2, 2016.

One of the more frequent excuses given for not voting is, “my vote won’t really matter.” It isn’t true, of course, but in this strange 2016 election cycle there are several reasons why each vote will indeed count in Tuesday’s congressional and judicial Primary Elections.

Political analysts are predicting that voter turnout for the June 7^th Primary will be less than ten percent of qualified voters; some speculate as few as five percent going to the polls. The smaller the number of votes, the more each vote counts.

Your vote will have additional weight because, unlike previous primary elections, there will be no runoff elections. This is a winner-take-all affair in which the candidate from each party receiving one more vote than his or her opponent will qualify to run in the November 8^th General Elections.

This June vote was necessitated because North Carolina’s Congressional districts were declared unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering. Our legislature was required to redraw the districts. The new maps have yet to be formally approved, but barring a court decision before Tuesday the primaries will be held.

The newly redrawn districts have generated some really fascinating contests. The Republican primary in District 2 pits two incumbent Congressmen against each other, with a third candidate likely to play the spoiler and tilt the outcome. The reconstituted 12^th District features six Democrats, including an incumbent Congresswoman and three current or former legislators. The newly drawn 13^th District needs a scorecard to identify all the players. Five Democrats and sixteen Republicans, including three current or former legislators, are contending. With expected low voter turnout and no runoff the winners in each party may not even receive double-digit percentages. Even if yours is not one of the headliners each congressional primary is important.

If the congressional races don’t motivate you to go to the polls the Supreme Court primary should. Our legislature passed a law allowing Supreme Court Justices to stand for a “retention” election, an up or down vote to allow Justices another eight year term, but a three-judge Superior Court panel overturned this law, saying it violated North Carolina’s Constitution. A subsequent tie vote from the current Supreme Court allowed that decision to stand.

Court elections and our appellate courts are supposedly nonpartisan, but this is clearly not the case. Pre-election campaigning makes it clear who the Republican, Democrat and Unaffiliated candidates are. The top two vote getters will face off in November. That election will be significant in determining the partisan makeup and likely the decisions of our highest court. Court decisions increasingly affect public policy and this election is important.

Several recent polls suggest that races for U.S. Senate, Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and State Treasurer, among others, are currently a virtual tossup and while Tuesday’s outcomes won’t directly impact their eventual outcomes they will perhaps give us a clearer read on the mood of the electorate. For instance, will mainstream Republicans show up in larger numbers than more conservative voters? Who among Democrats will turn out? Will minorities be sufficiently motivated to vote? Polls are one thing; votes are unquestionably the final word.

Every election is important. Tuesday’s vote is singularly important because your individual vote could count more than ever in determining outcomes.