2014 Election

The Forsyth County Board of Elections wants to buy $1.5 million worth of new voting equipment. Now the county commissioners have to decide if they will fund the request.

Last week was a tough one for the Forsyth County Board of Elections. A two-day recount for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools at-large race wrapped up Friday evening, confirming Democrat Katherine Fansler lost the seat to Republican Mark Johnson. Fansler had requested the recount earlier in the week after problems surfaced that included faulty machines, ballots that were not initially counted, others that were lost, and some that were counted twice.

The State Board of Election reports that 14 races across the state were so close that they're currently undergoing recounts. For the most part, though, close races were the exception this year. 

With the election in the rearview mirror, one thing we know is that Republicans won most of the races in North Carolina for both state and federal seats. It's not a surprise that redistricting shaped the outcome. But  the margins of victory for both Democrat and Republican winners is so wide critics from both sides are making new attacks on gerrymandering.

In the state House, of those races that had more than one candidate, the average margin of victory was 25 percent. It was slightly better in the state Senate, where the average margin of victory was about 23 percent.

That's up only about one percent from 2010's result – the last midterm with districts drawn under control of Democrats. But the number of races without a challenger rose from 12 to 20 during that span.

In all, of 170 legislative seats, only 32 had campaigns decided by below-landslide margins.

Those wide margins have even some Republicans wondering if the lines are fair.

The conservative-leaning John Locke Foundation has spoken out against skewed maps for more than 20 years now. Mitch Kokai with the Locke Foundation says they started when Democrats were still drawing the lines and they're continuing that fight even when the power has shifted.

"The way the process works now the elected officials get to choose their voters, which is completely the opposite of what we should have," he says. "We should have voters choosing their elected officials."

Kokai says he'd like to see the maps drawn by professional staff and not by the elected officials who stand to benefit from how those lines are drawn. He says an abundance of uncontested and one-sided districts hurts the democratic process, forcing parties to decide on just a few races close enough that they're worth fighting for.

"I've never liked gerrymandered districts but the fact of the matter is when the other side was in control for the last thirty years they seemed to have no problem," says Gov. Pat McCrory.

A referendum that would have raised the sales tax in Guilford County to help fund improvements in public schools failed to pass on Tuesday's election.

Turnout was a factor in Tuesday's election, but not in the way many people expected. A record number of people voted. But it only added up to 44 percent of registered voters, pretty typical for a mid-term election. That was a problem not just for Democrats, but also for pollsters.

Republicans have captured 10 of North Carolina's 13 seats in Congress. This solidifies the party's hold over the state's representation in the U.S. House.