Auditor-elect Beth Wood said it was hustle that helped her unseat Les Merritt.

Wood, a former training director in the auditor's office, told voters that Merritt has injected partisanship into his work. She credited her efforts at getting that message out, hitting the bricks.

"People saw that the office is being run in a partisan way," Wood said.

Merritt said during the campaign that a Democratic-controlled state government would naturally accuse a Republican auditor of partisanship and that he was just doing his job.

"I am proud of the work our office did over the past four years, and I feel that we accomplished a lot of good things for the taxpayers of North Carolina," Merritt said in a statement. "While things did not go our way tonight, I am extremely proud of the campaign we ran.  I thank the people of North Carolina for allowing me to serve as State Auditor for the past four years, and I congratulate Beth on her victory.  Now, I will take some time to evaluate my next steps."

Wood will be one of six women on the council of state.

"It's not a big deal in the fact that it's all women," Wood said. "It's a big deal in the fact that I'm going to work with some of the most qualified people...I did not want anybody to vote for me because I'm a woman. It just so happend that I was the most qualified for the position."

An ad for state Auditor Les Merritt portrays him as the "taxpayer's watchdog."

State Auditor Les Merritt's office continues to review North Carolina's voter rolls, more than a year after state lawmakers chided him during a packed committee hearing.

The review became public in June 2007, when Merritt advised senators to delay action on a bill to allow voter registration up to three days before an election, David Ingram reports.

Merritt, a Republican, said he had preliminary findings about potential fraud, which state election officials disputed and some Democrats called partisan.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, called Merritt before a Senate committee to explain himself. The bill later became law.

Merritt's spokesman Chris Mears said this week that auditors are still looking for possible irregularities in who has voted or registered to vote.

"We think that it would be after November for sure before we released any report," Mears said, citing the upcoming election. "We wouldn't want our report to be used in any way political."

Merritt is running for re-election against Democrat Beth Wood.

How much did female solidarity affect down-ballot races?

It's hard to quantify, but we know that Hillary Clinton drew a lot of women to the polls on Tuesday, despite losing to Barack Obama.

We also know that among low- to medium-information voters, one of the only things you can tell about a candidate from looking at the ballot is gender. (You cannot necessarily do the same with race.)

Looking at the dropoff in the down-ballot races, Dome noticed something of a natural experiment that might help quantify the effect of women voters.

The two partisan races with the biggest dropoff from the presidential race were insurance commissioner and labor commissioner. Coincidentally, one of those two races had no female candidates, while the other had two. (There were no women in the lieutenant governor's race as well.)

The dropoff was not as substantial in the races for state treasurer, state auditor and schools superintendent.

To pick the two that are most comparable, neither state auditor nor insurance commissioner are offices in which the average voter has a strong opinion. Both were two-person races without an incumbent. None of the candidates advertised heavily on television and all are relying on public financing.

But 1,253,251 people voted in the auditor's race, while only 1,223,609 voted in the insurance commissioner's race — a difference of 29,642 votes. That's a little less than 2 percent of the total Democratic voters.

Complicating factors: The incumbent auditor is a Republican who Democrats are eager to unseat. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin previously ran for statewide office and had a small TV ad buy. Ballot order may have affected voting rates.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the number of women in the labor commissioner's race. 

The Democratic presidential primary was the hot ticket last night.

The heated and historic race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama drew many voters to the polls who typically don't cast ballots in the primary and inspired some first-time voters.

But how many of them stuck around to vote in the other races?

Taking the presidential race as the high-water mark, we see that roughly 1.6 million people voted in the Democratic primary.

Nearly all of those stuck around for the governor's race. In the primary between Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue, 1.5 million voted, or 95 percent of the presidential voters.

After that, it gets interesting.

Nearly the same number of voters stuck around for the U.S. Senate race (85 percent) and the lieutenant governor's race (84 percent), or roughly 1.3 million votes.

The races for state treasurer (80 percent), state auditor (79 percent) and schools superintendent (79 percent) races, also did well, with roughly 1.3 million votes.

The numbers dropped off after that in the races for insurance commissioner (76 percent) and labor commissioner (76 percent), or roughly 1.2 million.

A record number of voters cast ballots Tuesday.

With 2,069,701 ballots cast — or 36 percent turnout — North Carolina beat the 1988 record of 953,759 or 31 percent turnout in a presidential primary. (N&O)

Turnout was driven by intense interest in the Democratic presidential primary, in which Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton, 56 to 42 percent. Obama gave a victory speech at Reynolds Coliseum, referencing a recent remark by Clinton on the campaign trail.

"They've been saying that North Carolina would be a game-changing state in this election," Obama said. "But what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C." (N&O)

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory will face off in the governor's race. (N&O) State Sen. Kay Hagan will face U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. (N&O) State Sen. Walter Dalton will face state Sen. Robert Pittenger for lieutenant governor.

Beth Wood will face her former boss, state Auditor Les Merritt. Schools supperintendent June Atkinson will face former state Rep. Richard Morgan. And state Sen. Janet Cowell will face state Rep. Bill Daughtridge for treasurer.

There will be a runoff between Democratic labor commissioner candidates Mary Fant Donnan and John Brooks.

David Young will celebrate in Asheville.

The Democratic candidate for state treasurer will watch election night returns with family and friends at his house.

Beth Wood will celebrate at her parents' farm.

The Democratic candidate for state auditor will watch election returns with her family in Cove City.

June Atkinson will celebrate at the North Raleigh Hilton.

The Democratic candidate for superintendent of public instruction will watch election returns in suite 543 with family and supporters.

Eddie Davis will celebrate at his home.

The Democratic candidate for superintendent of public instruction will watch election returns with his family in Durham.

Eric H. Smith will celebrate in Reidsville.

The Republican candidate for superintendent of public instruction will watch election returns at his home with family and friends.

Election Day is in two weeks, and most voters don't have a clue who they like in most of the statewide contests.

According to a recent survey of 962 likely Democratic primary voters, the majority have not decided who to vote for in a handful of Council of State races.

The tally:

State Treasurer - 63 percent undecided.

State Auditor - 58 percent undecided.

Superintendent of Public Instruction - 52 percent undecided.

Insurance Commissioner - 66 percent undecided.

Labor Commissioner - 60 percent undecided.

The N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers endorsed Beth Wood.

The group's political action committee announced this week that it was backing Wood, a former employee of the state auditor's office, in her run for the Democratic nomination for auditor.

"Her experience in the State Auditor's office, coupled with her background as a CPA, make her the strongest choice for the job," said Todd Barlow, political affairs counsel for the group, in a statement.

Les Merritt is running a Google Ad on the state Department of Transportation.

Searches for "NC DOT" or "NC Department of Transportation" bring up this ad:

Auditor Merritt
The Taxpayers' Watchdog
Getting the Job Done
www.AuditorMerritt.com
North Carolina