Last week I blogged about absentee voting reform in the ’09, ’10, and ’11 North Carolina General Assembly sessions that made it easier for the military and overseas voters to cast timely ballots that would be counted, and that also simplified the process for in country civilians. I first set foot in the General Assembly as a graduate student at Carolina in 1971 (before I went to law school) when I successfully lobbied for legislation to allow absentee voting in primaries (which had been banned since 1939 due to fraud in some sheriffs races.)
I’m going to be tracking especially the military and overseas voting through the calendar year to see if they contribute to ease. I’ve started to gather some statistics for 2012, as ballots began to be mailed out Monday March 19, with the request deadline of May 1 for the May 8 primary. The chart below shows totals as of close of business Wednesday, March 21, 2012 with 6,315 requests received.
| tot | D | R | U | L | |||||
|
CIVILIAN |
3995 | 1476 | 1752 | 763 | 4 | ||||
|
MILITARY |
1371 | 308 | 723 | 329 | 11 | ||||
|
OVERSEAS |
949 | 398 | 307 | 240 | 4 | ||||
|
TOTAL |
6315 | 2182 | 2782 | 1332 | 19 | ||||
| D | R | U | L | ||||||
|
civilian% |
36.9% | 43.9% | 19.1% | 0.1% | |||||
|
military% |
22.5% | 52.7% | 24.0% | 0.8% | |||||
|
overseas% |
41.9% | 32.3% | 25.3% | 0.4% | |||||
|
total % |
34.6% | 44.1% | 21.1% | 0.3% |
|
U |
U TO D |
U TO R |
U TO L |
U TO U |
|
|
CIVILIAN |
763 |
209 |
406 |
6 |
142 |
|
MILITARY |
329 |
25 |
57 |
3 |
244 |
|
OVERSEAS |
240 |
60 |
36 |
4 |
140 |
|
TOTAL |
1332 |
294 |
499 |
13 |
526 |
In the chart above:
Civilian includes all persons who are already registered
Military are those on active duty who are NOT registered to vote, and also their spouses
Overseas are those out of the USA, are not registered to vote, and are not military. This category also includes expatriates, those who have left the country, still have US citizenship, and whose last reisdnece was North carolina.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections updates a zipped file each day which can be used for data analysis. The chart shows the three categories crosstabbed by Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, and Unaffiliated, and for unaffiliated voters tracks whether they have requested a Democratic (U to D), Republican (U to R), or Libertarian (U to L) primary ballot, or chose to just take the nonpartisan ballot (U to U). The nonpartisan ballot, which Unaffiliated get if they do not ask for a aprty ballot, and which Libertarians also get because there are no Libertarian primaries this cycle, includes the constitutiojal amendment on marriage, and in some jursidictions district court, superior court, non partisan school boards, and some delayed municipal elections.
Drafting Musings 