Same-day registration gets rave reviews

Early voting got all the attention, but same-day registration was also a success.

State legislators on the elections law committee said they were proud of the record number of voters who cast ballots at one-stop sites in the weeks leading up to the election, but they were more excited about the early registration numbers.

According to figures compiled by the State Board of Elections, 91,736 North Carolinians registered at early voting centers and another 95,903 reported address changes, under election law changes allowed by a 2007 law.

In the May primary, 22,223 registered to vote and another 70,187 changed addresses.

The changes helped reduce the number of provisional ballots. Under the old system, people who reported address changes during early voting still cast a provisional ballot, while under the new system the voter registration was immediately updated.

For comparison, Wake County alone had about 4,000 provisional ballots this year and 10,915 in 2004, according to legislative analyst Gerry Cohen.

State Rep. Paul Luebke said he expects other states to model North Carolina's early voting system. The only change he suggests is to keep early polling places open longer and standardize hours in future elections.

Bad news slow to break

Two doses of bad news rolled out of the Democratic-controlled state government last week, just after the election.

State officials announced that school reading assessment test scores had taken a nosedive, and Easley's staff told lawmakers that tax revenue numbers were down, prompting Easley to ask for 5 percent cuts from state agencies.

Both pieces of information could have turned into fodder used against Democratic candidates in the last days of the election. The news, however, wasn't released until two days after the statewide vote.

Easley ordered the 5 percent cuts two weeks before the election but made no public announcement about it. He said members of both parties voted for the budget, and he didn't want the cuts turned into a campaign issue against any of them.

Burr on stimulus watch

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, will keep a close eye on that stimulus package the Democrats are pushing in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress.

"He wants to make sure the package doesn't include pork projects for congressional constituencies, especially Democratic constituencies," said his spokesman, Chris Walker. "And that anything with a 'stimulus' label is actually stimulating the economy."

Democrats have talked of including government-funded infrastructure projects as a way of creating jobs.

Herald of Obama

More than a year before former Democratic consultant Joe Sinsheimer began identifying corrupt Democratic lawmakers in North Carolina, he alerted friends to Barack Obama's future rise.

Sinsheimer is infamous among state Democrats for forming a Web site devoted to ousting then-House Speaker Jim Black long before Black's federal conviction on corruption charges. But he also worked for Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign.

When Obama was tapped to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, Sinsheimer sent e-mail to friends and colleagues, encouraging them to watch:

"If you don't know much about Barack, you will soon," Sinsheimer wrote in July 2004. "He is one (of) the rising stars in American politics."

Edwards reappears

Now that the election is over, former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John Edwards is ready to appear in public again.

Edwards is scheduled to speak at Indiana University tonight. His lecture, focused on the election results, is open to the public and will be followed by a question-and-answer session, according to the university.

It's probably safe to say Edwards won't be answering questions about his personal life. It's also probably safe to say Edwards isn't planning a move to Washington to be part of an Obama administration.

In August, Edwards admitted an extramarital affair with a woman who filmed a series of videos for his presidential campaign. Since then, he has kept a very low profile, canceling speeches and staying out of sight.