Election Day

Midterm elections were yesterday. The Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, although the word is still out on the Senate. Even in the information age, Virginia is still having trouble counting ballots.

In local news, Mike Nifong won the Durham District Attorney election. He captured 49.10% of the vote, while two challengers Lewis Cheek and write-in candidate Steve Monks received 39.25% and 11.64% respectively. Please notice 39.25+11.64>49.10.

Also interesting was my polling location, the River Church. Apparently, North Carolina isn’t too strict about that whole separation of church and state. Remember: God’s watching you cast your ballot!

Some states voted on issues ranging from abortion to same-sex marriage. Hopefully not as controversial, in other news, Arizona rejected the $1 Million Voter Reward proposition, an incentive designed to increase voter turnout, by randomly drawing one lucky voter’s name.

And for all those Classic Portnoy fans out there, I leave you with this story: After feeding my ballot into the electronic scanner, I commented to the attendant, “Gee, I hope this gets counted.” I don’t think she got the joke.