The runoff election cost more than $50 per voter, said Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina.

In a news release, Hall said Tuesday's vote took about $4 million to operate about 3,000 polling places and process the ballots of about 75,000 voters. In some counties, turnout was so low that the cost per vote reached $70, Hall said.

"Local taxpayers foot the bill, not the state, which may be one reason why state lawmakers have been slow to address the problem of expensive, low-turnout runoffs," Hall said in the news release.

Hall supports instant runoff voting, in which voters can mark a first and second choice on election day. The state has tested the system, but it is not used widely. 

"There's got to be a better way than these embarrassing statewide runoff elections," Hall said.

Bob Hall says instant-runoff voting could have saved the state millions.

The executive director of Democracy North Carolina says that North Carolina could have avoided today's primary runoff, which will cost from $3.5 to $5 million, by asking voters their second choice in the initial ballot.

"Today is really a case where we have this miserably low turnout, and it really is not democratic," he said.

Under instant-runoff voting, voters mark their first, second and third choices in a given race. If no candidate gets a majority in the initial round of voting, the second-choice votes of people who voted for the losing candidate are counted.

State Rep. Paul Luebke proposed a bill to allow the method in statewide party primaries and judicial races in the 2005 session, but it was scaled back to a pilot program for municipal elections. The towns of Cary and Hendersonville successfully used instant runoffs in the 2007 races.

Hall, a campaign finance reformer, said that instant runoffs also help candidates budget wisely.

"You don't have to worry about squirrelling away money for a possible runoff," he said. "And you don't have a situation where the candidate who can raise a lot of money real quick has an advantage."

A Washington-based nonprofit is behind the "Lamont Williams" calls.

According to Facing South, a staffer for Women's Voices Women Vote admitted that it was behind recent robocalls that gave misleading information about voter registration.

The State Board of Elections has been looking for the source of the calls.

The nonprofit told the Institute for Southern Studies, which runs the Facing South blog, that the calls were part of a 24-state effort to register unmarried women. But the calls do not mention the group's name, they come from an unlisted number and they are misleading.

The calls tell voters to look for a voter-registration packet in the mail, but they were made after the deadline passed in North Carolina for mail-in registration.

Complaints have been made in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona about similarly misleading calls.

"The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state's primary," Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall told Facing South.

State elections officials are asking for the public's help in identifying the source of misleading and potentially illegal robocalls.

In at least one version of the call, a man says that voter registration packets must be returned before a person can vote. The State Board of Elections released a transcript of the call.

"Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. Thank you."

Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said in a news release that the calls were being made to African American households. The good government watchdog posted audio of the call.

More after the jump.

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Beverly Perdue's campaign reform plan drew praise — and attacks — in broad strokes.

N.C. Voters for Clean Elections, a coalition of about 30 campaign reform groups and nonprofits, released a statement today applauding the Democratic gubernatorial candidates plan to provide public funding to gubernatorial candidates who pledge to run positive campaigns.

Chase Foster, coordinator of the coalition, said Perdue is showing "important leadership," but he would not discuss the feasability or details of the plan.

"I'm not commenting on the details of the proposal," Foster replied when asked about the feasibility of the plan. "What's important here is that the proposal raises the problem of current privately financed campaigns."

Bob Hall, executive director of coalition member Democracy North Carolina, said also he would not "quibble with the details," as did field organizer Jonathan Peterson.

"There may be more intricacies that need to be worked out but we recognize that this is a positive step of  gubernatorial candidate supporting public financing of elections," he said.

Meantime, John Hood of the conservative John Locke Foundation also described the proposal in broad strokes.

"It makes no sense, it solves no problem and it'll never happen anyway," he said.

Fifty-six legislators face no opposition this fall.

Fourteen Senate candidates and 42 House candidates will be elected without primary or general election opponents, based on filings with the State Board of Elections.

Among them: Senate leader Marc Basnight; House Speaker Joe Hackney; Former House Minority Leader Jonathan Rhyne, a Lincolnton lawyer who hasn't been a state lawmaker for 15 years; and Rep. Phil Frye, a Mitchell County Republican who recently was pulled over for driving while impaired.

"This is again another year where we don't have enough people running for office," said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. "Hopefully there will be more attention to that and more support for reforms."

He supports creating an independent commission to draw legislative districts, shortening the legislative session, boosting lawmakers salaries and publicly financing legislative races. (N&O)

Richard Moore is pressing Beverly Perdue on the Neuse River Bridge.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate has questioned whether the lieutenant governor profited from a $120 million bridge in New Bern she lobbied for as a state senator.

The bridge replaced an unsafe span and helped fuel growth. A few months after it opened, a 150-acre housing development called Quail Woods five miles from the bridge became active. Perdue was a corporate officer and later co-owner.

"New Bern needed a bridge, but not a $120 million, four-lane Taj Mahal," said Jay Reiff, Moore's campaign manager. 

But Perdue's staff point out that the older bridge was rated less safe than the one that collapsed in Minnesota last year, the state Board of Transportation voted unanimously for it and 22 local governments passed resolutions in favor of it.

Bob Hall, research director for the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina, said that he has seen no evidence of corruption.

"There's no smoking gun here," he said. (Char-O) 

Richard Moore's roads reform plan could push fundraising into the shadows.

Bob Hall, executive director of campaign finance reform group Democracy North Carolina, said that the current method of raising money for an appointment to the state Board of Transportation smacks of political patronage.

"It's the closest thing we have to feudalism in North Carolina," he said. 

Still, he said it has the advantage of transparency, since reporters and others can easily point out how much money a board member has given through campaign finance reports. He praised Moore's plan to bar campaign donations and bundling as a good start. 

But he said there are loopholes. He worried that the ban on direct giving could just push the money farther down the chain, with political donors asking for business associates or friends to be named to a post instead.

"That makes it much more difficult to follow the money," he said. 

With election day a year away, experts will gather in Raleigh on Friday to discuss whether North Carolina is ready.

The forum at N.C. State University will discuss recent changes in state election law including same-day registration, and instant-runoff voting, and the reliability of the state's electronic voting machines, Rob Christensen reports.

The keynote speaker is Curtis Gans, the director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

Panelists include Gary Bartlett, executive director of the N.C. Board of Elections; Rep. Deborah Ross; Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina; and scholars from N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC-Greensboro.

The event , will be held from 1-5 p.m. in G-107 Caldwell Hall on the N.C. State campus. It is being sponsored by the N.C. State political science department and the RTI International.

A new report by Democracy North Carolina shows that members of the state’s congressional delegation are raising four times as much money as they did a generation ago, even adjusting for inflation.

“They just love pulling in the money, I guess,” said Bob Hall, executive director of the non-partisan watchdog organization. "Most of them are not facing that much competition. I think a lot of it is building your war chests to push away competitors.”

In 1980, the average congressional incumbent from North Carolina who faced a challenger raised $145,500 -- or $356,000 in today’s dollars, reports Barb Barrett.

In 2006, the average amount was nearly $1.4 million, according to the project.

Last year, the state’s 13 members of Congress raised a collective $17 million, the report said.

About 40 percent of that came from political action committees sponsored by groups such as real-estate agents, unions, medical providers and political parties.

Challengers raised about a third as much, the report said. Only one of the challengers – Democrat Heath Shuler of Waynesville – won a race. Shuler defeated GOP Rep. Charles Taylor, who had raised more than $4 million, including $2.5 million of his own money.

“It’s certainly not 100 percent that if you get the most money you will win,” Hall said.