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Stay tuned
Unless you have been hermetically sealed in a cave for the past year, you know another political season has descended upon us. And for all of my 40 years, I can't recall a time when people have been more tuned into the political scene at the local, state and national levels. While the chase for three seats on the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners has attracted the most interest in terms of candidate filings, this year also promises to have competitive elections for State House, State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, North Carolina Governor and Lieutenant Governor. And for the first time since 1976, North Carolina's voters actually will play a role in choosing a party's nominee for president. In fact, many political observers will tell you that it was the Tar Heel state that kept Ronald Reagan a viable candidate in his quest for the presidency. Thanks to strong backing by Sen. Jesse Helms, Reagan - who had lost a series of primaries coming into the March vote - defeated President Gerald Ford. Though Reagan did not get the nomination, the credibility he gained allowed him to capture the Republican nomination and the presidency in 1980. Depending on the results in Tuesday's Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas, along with an April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, North Carolina voters could provide the finishing kick Tuesday, May 6 for Sen. Barack Obama or serve as a catalyst in revitalizing Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. That same primary day, voters will decide which of the eight Republican and five Democratic county commission candidates make the cut to move on to the Nov. 4 general election. Voters also will choose nominees for the U.S. Congress and the governor's mansion. If you have rarely or never participated in an election, now is the time to do so. It's not too late to register to vote in the primary. And with one-stop voting sites now expanding to two locations in the county, new voters can take advantage of same-day registration when early voting begins in April. People often think their vote doesn't count. Al Gore and John Kerry are but a few would-be presidents who would disagree. Gore's famously narrow loss in Florida in 2000 cost him the electoral vote, despite gaining 500,000 more popular votes nationally. Kerry, meanwhile, would have become president in 2004 if 60,000 voters in Ohio had changed their minds in the voting booth. Had that occurred, it would have been a weird kind of karma, given that President George W. Bush outpolled Kerry by 3 million votes overall. Other presidential elections have turned by narrow margins. Ford nearly maintained the presidency against Jimmy Carter in 1976, while Vice President Hubert Humphrey needed to flip a few thousand votes in 1968 to send the election to the House of Representatives where he would have prevailed. And while the closeness of the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon remains a favorite for historians, consider that in 1880 Ohio Rep. James Garfield defeated Civil War hero Winfield Hancock by 2,000 popular votes. Then again, Garfield was assassinated during his first year in office, and Hancock died in 1886, so maybe there were no winners back then. A couple of other notes to consider: € Since 1900, there have been 27 presidential elections. Republicans have won 15 and the Democrats have claimed 12. Since 1968, the GOP is 7-3. € Including the 1968 presidential election, no Democratic nominee has received more than 50.1 percent of the popular vote. And, finally, Australia leads all nations in voter turnout at 95 percent. Even stodgy, old Britain has 76 percent of its electorate going to the polls. Maybe this primary season, we can get our rate up 50 percent. Paul Teague is the News-Topic's Local News Editor and is a former Sports Editor. He also believes C-Span has the most exciting programs on television.
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