The magazine of the North Carolina Center for Voter Education • Saturday May 19, 2012

Election 2011: Results in N.C., Nationally

By Bryan Warner
Published: Nov. 9, 2011

RALEIGH - With the 2012 elections looming large on the horizon, almost half a million North Carolina voters went to the polls Tuesday for local contests across the state. At the same time, several key votes were decided in other parts of the nation, touching on such issues as collective bargaining rights, abortion and voter ID.

One of the most prominent races decided Tuesday was a runoff for a lone Wake County School Board seat, the outcome of which would determine control of that body. The race garnered national attention, with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan saying he would watch the results “very, very closely.”

In the Wake County School Board District 3 runoff, incumbent Kevin Hill -- backed by the county’s Democratic Party -- defeated his Republican-endorsed challenger, Heather Losurdo, 52-48 percent. Tuesday’s runoff garnered 4,000 more ballots than the total cast in that race’s initial vote in October -- a 25 percent increase.

With Hill the winner in a race that saw thousands of dollars spent by liberal and conservative independent groups, the majority on the Wake County School Board shifts back to Democrats. Last month Democrats successfully unseated Chairman Ron Margiotta, who had been the sole Republican voice on the board until GOP-backed candidates swept into power with the 2009 election.

In other North Carolina elections from Tuesday:

In one of the few officially partisan races of the night, Democratic Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx won a second term, defeating Republican Scott Stone, 68-32 percent. Also in Charlotte, Democrats swept the race for four at-large seats on the city council, unseating incumbent Republican Edwin Peacock.

While voter turnout was only 16 percent in Charlotte on Tuesday, it seemed to strongly favor Democrats, as evidenced by the 67-32 percent advantage over Republicans in straight-party voting.

In Greensboro, challenger Robbie Perkins defeated incumbent Mayor Bill Knight, 57-43 percent. Greenville Mayor Pat Dunn appeared to lose by less than 200 votes to challenger Allen Thomas.

Incumbent mayors in Chapel Hill, Durham, Fayetteville and Wilmington won by relatively wide margins.

By a slim margin of 51-49 percent, Buncombe County voters approved a contentious sales tax referendum to raise funds for A-B Technical Community College.

Beyond North Carolina:

By 61-39 percent, Ohio voters repealed a law pushed by Republican Gov. John Kasich that would have restricted collective bargaining rights for public employees. At the same time, voters there approved by 66-34 percent a proposed state constitutional amendment targeted at exempting Ohioans from the federal health-care mandate championed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

In Mississippi, a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have granted personhood status to embryos was defeated. Also last night, Mississippi voters approved a proposed voter photo ID requirement.

In Maine, voters elected to reinstate same-day voter registration, which had been repealed by the Republican-controlled legislature in June.