NEWSFLASH: Is "13" a lucky number?

It won't be for the statewide IRV Court of Appeals race.  As of the close of business today, we now have a 13-way ClusterF@#K!

COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (WYNN) (WYNN SEAT)

BLOSS, JOHN F (U-W)

John F. Bloss

CASTEEN, JOHN WESLEY JR (U-W)

J. Wesley Casteen

DILLON, ROBERT CHRISTOPHER (R-W)

Chris Dillon

FARLOW, JEWEL ANN (R-W)

Jewel Ann Farlow

GARNER, DANIEL E (R-W)

Daniel E. Garner

HAMMER, STANLEY F (D-W)

Stan Hammer

KLASS, MARK E (D-W)

Mark E. Klass

MCCULLOUGH, JOHN DOUGLAS (R-W)

Doug McCullough 

MIDDLETON, ANNE (D-W)

Anne Middleton 

PAYNE, HARRY E JR (D-W)

Harry E. Payne, Jr 

SULLIVAN, JOHN C (D-W)

John Sullivan

THIGPEN, CRESSIE (D-B/AA)
Cressie Thigpen

VESPER, PAMELA M there is no Pamela Vesper registered to vote in NC

Pamela M. Vesper

There is a Pamela Vesper Millward registered as (UNA-W) 

Let's look at some stats:

D - 6 - 46.1%
R - 4 - 30.8%
UNA- 2 - 15.4%
unknown - 7.7%

Men -10
Women -3
% of women in NC in 2009 - 51%,
% of women in the Court of Appeals race - 23%

White - 12 - 92.3%
Black - 1 - 7.7%
Hispanic - 0
But blacks make up 21.6% of the population

There is no way this race is gonna be settled in the first round. It's gonna go to IRV.

Problem is, there is no certified software to count the second and third column votes.  I don't even think that these races can go on a single ballot with the non-IRV races and not violate both state and federal laws.

You can't determine overvotes between columns, and the 2nd and 3rd column votes won't be counted where they are cast.   And I don't see the DRE folks wanting to port all these votes over to an MS Excel spreadsheet like they planned to do in Hendersonville in 2007 or 2009.  Luckily, Herndersonville never had to actually do that - they got winners in every first round election.  Which meant that IRV was a waste of time for their voters.

The only way I can see doing this with the least amount of law-breaking and troubles would be to put all the IRV races on one 14" ballot for all 100 counties for ABM, early voting and precinct voting.  That way the races will be counted the same way across the entire state.

If IRV races are put on the regular ballot, you won't be able to start counting IRV races until each and every single-column race is settled - meaning if there are any challenges to any race, calls for recounts, etc. - you can't start doing IRV until you are done with everything.

Then there are three counties that have Superior Court IRV races. If any of them need tabulation of the 2nd and 3rd column votes, which race will they count first - the local Superior Court race or the statewide IRV race?  And they will have to handle that first race and make sure that no one wants a recount before starting to tabulate the other IRV race, since you can't disturb the tabulation piles in one race until you resolve another IRV race. 

What a train wreck this is gonna be!

8 candidates filed so far....

...as of Monday, August 31, 2010.  Governor Perdue appointed Cressie Thigpen to the seat!  Thigpen filed for the seat, so it's now an 8-way "ClusterF@#k"!

COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (WYNN) (WYNN SEAT)

CASTEEN, JOHN WESLEY JR (U-W)

J. Wesley Casteen

DILLON, ROBERT CHRISTOPHER (R-W)

Chris Dillon

FARLOW, JEWEL ANN (R-W)

Jewel Ann Farlow

HAMMER, STANLEY F (D-W)

Stan Hammer

KLASS, MARK E (D-W)

Mark E. Klass

MCCULLOUGH, JOHN DOUGLAS (R-W)

Doug McCullough 

MIDDLETON, ANNE (D-W)

Anne Middleton 

THIGPEN, CRESSIE (D-B/AA)
Cressie Thigpen

Let's look at some stats:

D - 4 - 50%
R - 3 - 37.5%
U - 1 - 12.5%

Now you know IRV is supposed to do wonderful things for minorities.  Does it?

Men - 6
Women - 2
% of women in NC in 2009 - 51%,
% of women in the Court of Appeals race - 25%

White - 7 - 87.5%
Black - 1 - 12.50%
Hispanic - 0
But blacks make up 21.6% of the population
Still think IRV helps minorities?

Five candidates filed so far....

...as of Friday, August 27, 2010.  Governor Perdue appointed Cressie Thigpen to the seat!  Thigpen has announced that he will file for the seat, but he hasn't done so yet.  So if Judge Thigpen files for the seat, it'll be a 6-way "ClusterF@#k"!

COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (WYNN) (WYNN SEAT)

CASTEEN, JOHN WESLEY JR (U-W)

J. Wesley Casteen

DILLON, ROBERT CHRISTOPHER (R-W)

Chris Dillon

HAMMER, STANLEY F (D-W)

Stan Hammer

KLASS, MARK E (D-W)

Mark E. Klass

MCCULLOUGH, JOHN DOUGLAS (R-W)

Doug McCullough

Let's look at some stats:

D - 2 
R - 2
U - 1

If Judge Thigpen runs, there will be 3 Dems.

Now you know IRV is supposed to do wonderful things for minorities.  Does it?

Men - 5
Women - 0
% of women in NC in 2009 - 51%,
% of women in the Court of Appeals race - 0%
With Thigpen, there will still be 0% women running.

White - 5
Black - 0
Hispanic -0
% of whites - 100%
% of blacks - 0%
% of blacks if Thigpen runs - 16.67%.  But blacks make up 21.6% of the population

Still think IRV helps minorities? 

Time to learn something new!

It's time to learn a new way of voting statewide - it's called IRV which is short for Instant Runoff Voting.

Our State Board of Elections knows and has admitted that we have no software to count IRV ballots on our voting systems. The staff knew it in 2007, and the board knew about it in 2008.  They admitted it on Tuesday in Asheville.

They know and have admitted that the Instant Runoff method conflicts with state and federal elections laws and rules that contributed to our state being ranked #1 in election integrity in 2006 - only two years after the 2004 General Election (a Florida-style election meltdown) that led to the passage of our Public Confidence in Elections Act in 2005.

So now our SBOE is going to dump an new and untested election method on NC voters that more likely than not will result in confusing among voters, contested elections because no one is sure how they will be counted, if the count is right or even legal (since the contest in question is a judicial race where all candidates will or should be lawyers).

So it's time to learn the meaning of a new word that applies to IRV anywhere, but especially to our elections under the circumstances: "clusterf@#k"

The Urban Dictionary has several definitions for "clusterf@#k", according to the Urban Dictionary:

1. Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All F@#ked Up") and "FUBAR" (F@#ked Up Beyond All Repair). In radio communication or polite conversation (i.e. with a very senior officer with whom you have no prior experience) the term "clusterf@#k" will often be replaced by the NATO phonetic acronym "Charlie Foxtrot."
2. Traditionally/originally of military origin. Today, however, "clusterf@#k" is commonly used to descriptively generalize any situation with a large scale of disarray. Possibly synonyms: mess, disaster.
3. A combination of things going extremely wrong in a short period of time within the same general activity -- caused by stupidity and/or ineptitude. A polite term using the same initials would be "compound fiasco".

The word has been integrated most successfully by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show in their segment entitled  "Clusterf@#k to the White House!"

So I hope I have peaked your curiosity about North Carolina's Instant Runoff Voting method that will foisted on the voting public in two months.  Come on back and learn more about IRV and get ready for the "ClusterF@#k to the Court of Appeals"!