Straight Ticket Voters

A lot of Republicans seem to be using straight ticket voting as an 'excuse' for their losses in North Carolina, as if those votes are somehow less legitimate than other votes.

I completely disagree. If voters decide across the board that one party is better than the other, that's just as informed a decision as deciding from office to office which candidate you think is better.

To Pat McCrory and other GOP'ers complaining about this: can you please give me a list of the Democrats you voted for in partisan contests?

I also think it's hilarious McCrory claims that the straight ticket voting is 'something the polls didn't see.' I think every single poll released in the last two weeks of the campaign showed Bev Perdue with a slight lead, so if any polling didn't reflect that it must have been McCrory's own internal polling.

I wouldn't be shocked if that's the case, since McCrory campaign manager Richard Hudson claimed on the Under the Dome blog that a PPP poll showing a 22% black electorate was biased since African Americans were only going to make up 17% of the electorate. If the polling McCrory was getting was based on that assumption it's no wonder he had an unrealistic idea of where the election would end up.

One reason not getting much attention for Perdue's victory: there's no doubt she had a vastly superior team on her side.