newsobserver.com projects - Berry supports lowering threshold - Comments

Re: Berry supports lowering threshold

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:24:33 -0400

Augh. And I knew that too.

Thanks for pointing that out.

— RTB

Re: Berry supports lowering threshold

lefaim — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:22:21 -0400

The threshold is 40% Ryan. Same mistake in the print version today. You also had some other factual errors, such as saying that Mary Fant Donnan worked for Berry in 2000 even though Berry didnt take office until 2001, having been elected in November of 2000.

Berry supports lowering threshold

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:15:17 -0400

Both candidates for state labor commissioner have faced primary runoffs with extremely low turnout.

Democrat Mary Fant Donnan, a first-time candidate, won her party's nomination in a race Tuesday with less than 2 percent turnout. Incumbent Republican Cherie Berry also won a primary runoff in her first campaign in 2000, which also saw a record-low 2.5 percent turnout.

Donnan said she would be open to discussion about ways to avoid primary runoffs, such as instant-runoff voting, in which voters mark their second choice on the ballot.

Berry said she favors lowering the 40 percent threshold required to secure the nomination in a race with more than two candidates.

"I've always thought that the person that gets the most votes ought to win," she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the threshold.