The first day of early voting in North Carolina went smoothly and briskly:
According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, nearly 230,000 ballots were cast across the state as of 5:30 p.m.
The NCSBE says that number is more than it was back on the first day of early voting in 2016, when 166,000 ballots were cast statewide after that first day.
Thursday’s total is in addition to the nearly 553,000 absentee ballots returned through Thursday. This isn’t close to being over.
A close friend from Anderson, SC (hometown of the late Chadwick Boseman) experienced southern culture shock when he returned after several years of coaching track in the Bay area. Southern accents crashed against his ears so jarringly that he cracked up for weeks as he reassimilated and we repeated familiar phrases phonetically.
“Ahm ona git me a beer. Y’ont one?”
“Aw-aight.”
But with record early voting underway in many states, one of those tobacco-chewing coach-ism he heard might apply here. If you expect to win [spit!], you gotta want it. (In parts of the South, want sounds like won’t.)
As exciting as reports of record-shattering early vote totals might seem, remember: Republicans bat last. If they expect not to get out-scored in the bottom half of the last inning, Democrats had best run up a lead so high that in Little League the umpire would call the game. In Little League, it’s sometimes called the “mercy rule.” But politics is more like Cobra Kai: no mercy. Democrats’ opponents will show none.
Democrats need to keep putting points on the board all the way to the close of polls on Election Day. Really. You gotta want it.
Early voting was so intense here in 2008 that by Election Day there was virtually no one left to vote at my precinct who intended to. Between 3 p.m. and polls closing at 7:30 p.m., six voters showed up. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Just me and the tumbleweeds outside in the street. In the end, Barack Obama won the state by 14,000 votes, 3,000 less than the margin delivered out of our county. That was close. Not Florida 2000 close. Not Roy Cooper 2016 close. But too close.
In 2020, too close won’t cut it.
New Democratic candidates are always buoyed by favorable-looking early voting numbers. Experienced ones know not to trust them.
Work your asses off.
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