Today was the big day, primary election day in North Carolina. Who'd a thunk that a primary held in May would have any significance at all, let alone be an essential battleground being watched across the nation.

Of course the big hoopla over North Carolina's primary is the Democratic presidential race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The media is covering this race non-stop, telling us how important it is for each candidate to "win" the state. Adding to this already high-profile spectacle is the fact that North Carolina is what you call an open primary state. Independent voters can choose to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. Independents came in droves to "make their votes count" by choosing to vote in the Democratic primary. Many registered Republicans temporarily switched their party affiliations to independent so they could vote in the Democratic primary too, either honestly or as part of El Rushbo's Operation Chaos. As anticipated, record numbers of voters turned out today, often waiting on long lines for a primary election which usually sees a poor turnout. I of course was one of them and entered my precinct polling location at 7:30 am. When asked which ballot I wanted, I - for the first time - proudly said "Republican."

My vote counted today - and if you live in North Carolina or Indiana, mine counted more than your's.

Despite what the media has repeated endlessly, it did not matter one iota whether Obama or Clinton "won" the primary. The reason it didn't matter is the same reason we still have a race - because unlike the national election in November, states are not winner-take-all in the Democratic primaries. The pledged delegates from each state are divided proportionally, so both sides gain delegate votes. All this fuss is just over whether Obama gets a couple more or less delegates depending on the margin of victory. Will Obama win by 12% or 14%. Either way, Hillary will still walk away with around 40% of delegate votes too.

Take a look at Guam's primary on Saturday as a good example of how ridiculous it is to be worried about who "wins". The media reported an exciting race which Obama won by a mere 7 votes. But did Obama "win" anything at all? Obama and Clinton split Guam's four delagates 50/50. So despite the reports about Obama's "victory", they really tied. If Obama won Guam than by that logic you can ignore the electoral college and say that Gore won the 2000 election. (I know he did win the popular vote but he didn't win what counted, the actual election.)

So realizing the falsehood that voting in the Democratic primary would have any significance, I chose to make my vote really count and vote in the Republican primary because there were several local elections that mattered, and with almost nobody voting in the Republican primary this year, my vote counted all the more. One of these neglected races was the Republican Governor's race which included seven-time-elected Mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory.

Now since John McCain has already clinched the Republican nomination, my vote in the Republican Presidential primary wouldn't count any more than it did for the Democratic Presidential primary. So as long as my vote didn't count in that race, I voted for Ron Paul. Yes he can't possibly win but he is still running and he's even had some radio ads here in North Carolina. So even though my vote didn't count in the Presidential race either, at least I realized it.

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Follow up:

I wasn't the only one. Ron Paul got a respectable 9% of the vote in Mecklenburg County.

Labels: politics