newsobserver.com projects - Presidential spoilers in N.C. history - Comments

Re: Presidential spoilers in N.C. history

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:28:44 -0400

A valid point, but I would still count coming in second as being a spoiler. The dynamics of a two-person versus a three-person race are much different.

— RTB

Re: Presidential spoilers in N.C. history

meschreiner — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:32:59 -0400

The rest are good examples, but the Bull Moose campaign did not earn enough votes to affect the race between the Republican and the Democrat.
As noted, Wilson received 59.2 percent of the vote. Even if Taft was the only other candidate in that race, he'd still have lost with a maximum 40.8 percent of the vote.

I suppose Teddy spoiled Taft's chance to come in second.

Re: Presidential spoilers in N.C. history

waya_ageyutsa — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:47:51 -0400

Bob Barr will be the only third party candidate to have the opportunity in NC to be a spoiler!

Unfortunately, both Nader/Gonzalez and the Green Party has been blocked from our ballot!

I find this to be offensive to many people in this state as well as unconstitutional!

It is a sad day in the United States of America when voters are disenfranchised as they have been this year!

This is not fair and true representation of "we the people", nor is it true Democracy!

Presidential spoilers in N.C. history

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:47:17 -0400

There have been five presidential spoilers in N.C. in the last century.

Since 1908, third-party candidates in the presidential race have earned enough votes to affect the race between the Republican and the Democrat on the ballot in 1912, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 1996.

In the first two cases, the third-party candidate came in second.

George Wallace was the most successful, earning 31.3 percent of the state vote in the 1968 race as the nominee of the segregationist American Independent Party. The winner, Republican Richard Nixon, won 39.5 percent, while Democrat Hubert Humphrey came in third with 29.2 percent.

The next most successful was former president Teddy Roosevelt, who ran on the Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party in 1912, earning 28.4 percent. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the state with 59.2 percent, while Republican incumbent William Howard Taft came in third with 12 percent.

In the other races, the third-party candidates came in third, but got more votes than the margin of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates.

In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot earned 13.7 percent of the vote, far more than the 0.79 percent margin that incumbent George H.W. Bush beat Bill Clinton by in North Carolina, despite losing the national race.

Four years later, Perot was roughly half as popular — picking up just 6.7 percent — but he still drew more votes than the 4.7 percent difference between winner Bob Dole and Clinton.

And in 1980, Independent candidate John Anderson won 2.9 percent, slightly more than the 2.1 percent difference between winner Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.