Isn't it about time to get honest about voting?

by Joe Mavretic, former House Speaker and NC SPIN panelist, November 1, 2018.

Whenever election time comes around, the media, political parties, and candidates begin thumping about voting rights, precincts and districts, voting times and places, registrations and ballots, and any other current issue that will gather some attention, sell advertising, and bring in some contributions.

Two things with which you will be bombarded over and over is our "Precious Right To Vote"and "Majority Rule." What you will not hear, or read about, are voting statistics based upon ELIGIBLE VOTERS.

You will not be informed about voter turnout based upon eligible voters.

You will not be informed about who won, by what margin, based upon eligible voters.

What will be hidden from you is the accurate reflection of what North Carolina’s eligible voters think about their precious right to vote. Also, hidden from you is the comedy surrounding majority rule.

In North Carolina, with rare exceptions, you are eligible to vote if you are eighteen years old on election day, live in N.C. and are not a felon. Lumped together, the exceptions are not statistically significant. Eligible voters are "We the people, By the people, For the people."

How do eligible voters in North Carolina treat their precious right to vote? At least seventeen percent (17%) of them have such compelling personal schedules that they cannot bother to register to vote. That means, of the one hundred percent (100%) that are eligible to vote, only  eighty three percent (83%) have registered to vote. Voter turnout is not measured against eligible voters; it is measured against registered voters in order to obfuscate the true percentages.

Below are various registered voter turnout percentages reported in North Carolina:

Primary/non-president 1990<2014=Less than 22%

Primary/President 1988<2016=Less than 40%

General/non-president 1974<2014=Less than 62%

                      And the best case:

General/President 1972<2016=Less than 70% (Avg.=66%)

Lets give those who actually cast their vote a huge benefit of the doubt (and a pat on the back) and claim that registered voters’ turnout is seventy percent (70%). However, that is just 70% of those 83% registered voters or about 58% of our eligible voters. In spite of early voting, absentee voting, and a long election day staffed by thousands of volunteers, four out of ten eligible NC voters have something better to do than vote!

Put another way, about 40% of our eligible voters could care less about their precious right to vote and they prove it with their feet.

If only 58% of our eligible voters cast ballots for their candidate, what does that say about MAJORITY RULE?

Most candidates win by about 55% of the votes cast by registered voters but that is less than 33% of the eligible votes. Put another way, for the last fifty years in North Carolina, few, if any, Governors, Senators, Representatives, Council of State Officers, Judges or Congressman have been elected to office by a majority of eligible voters. All have served after winning about one third of the possible votes and have spent a lot of time bragging about doing what the "Majority" wanted or needed. How did one-third become a majority?

I often wonder if political parties want every eligible North Carolinian to vote? Or, if it is advantageous to complicate/obstruct the registration process for partisan gain? Or, should we move toward more political parties so that Independent (Unaffiliated) voters might have a chance to vote for a candidate of their choice? Or, should Election Day be a state holiday? Or, what else could be done to encourage registration and turnout? Then I think that perhaps the honest reason for the figment of majority rule and under-reported voter turnout is that four out of ten eligible North Carolina voters just don’t give a damn!