Elections

Well, it looks like it will be at least a few days before we have resolution on the second judicial seat in Superior Court district 15B. As we reported Tuesday night, Allan Baddour finished just 70 votes ahead of Adam Stein (who was less than 600 votes ahead of Chuck Anderson) in an extremely competitive race among very well-qualified candidates.

But the second incumbent, Judge Allen Baddour, finished only 70 votes ahead of challenger Adam Stein, a well-known Chapel Hill lawyer.

That's a lead of one-tenth of 1 percentage point.

The election was so close that even the fourth candidate, District Court Judge Charles Anderson, still finished within 1 percentage point of Baddour.
- N&O: Judge results have to wait

This page has all the unofficial stats for Orange County election returns: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/2006general/

As of now (moments after polls closing), we can see the absentee results:

Anderson BaddourFox Stein
Absentee Mail 107 110 211 193
One Stop 2072 1937 3856 2990
Provisional 0 0 0 0
Transfer 0 0 0 0
Total 2179 2047 4067 3183

Referendum Yes No
Absentee Mail 202 103
One Stop 3834 1781
Provisional 0 0
Transfer 0 0
Total 4036 1884

Everything else is as expected....

We're just four days out from the election now, so I'd be interested to hear some predictions on a couple fronts:

Obviously the most intense race locally is the well funded Superior Court race between incumbents Carl Fox and Allen Baddour, and challengers Chuck Anderson and Adam Stein.

-One thing I'll be watching with interest Tuesday night is Carl Fox's performance. During both the primary and the general, Fox has run the lowest profile campaign of the contenders. In the primary he finished first by a large margin nonetheless, likely owing to his name recognition and magnetic personality.

But that was the primary, and the wider electorate in the general is less likely to be familiar with Fox's record and personality. I think he'll probably still finish first, but by a much smaller margin, at least percentage-wise, than in the spring.