Republican Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry said voters had enough confidence in her to give her a third term despite a sweeping Democratic tide.

"I was very grateful that the citizens had confidence in what we were doing in the labor department and were gracious enough to allow me to serve a third term," Berry said.

Berry's win over Democratic challenger Mary Fant Donnan was by a slim margin. Berry said that is likely due to a large number of voters who voted straight Democrat.

"The message I tried to put out there is I have the experience to do this job. Worker safety and health care have always been my top priority," Berry said.

Berry and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler will be the only Republicans on the council of state. Berry said she's thankful Troxler is still on since she'll have enough support to have her ideas debated. 

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.

Mary Fant Donnan won by a two-to-one margin.

The Winson-Salem Democrat sewed up the nomination for labor commissioner in a runoff primary held today.

With all 100 counties reporting, Donnan has 43,217 votes, or 68 percent. Former labor commissioner John C. Brooks has 20,445, or 32 percent. She now faces incumbent Republican Cherie Berry in November.

Turnout was a paltry 1.9 percent.

In a runoff for the Democratic nomination in state Senate District 5, Don Davis beat Kathy Taft, 63 percent to 37 percent. The seat is currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. John Kerr III.

Davis, the mayor of Snow Hill, had slightly edged Taft, a member of the State Board of Education, in a six-way race in the May primary, but failed to garner a majority. He now faces four-term Rep. Louis Pate, a Wayne County Republican.

And in a runoff for the Republican nomination in state House District 67, Justin Burr defeated Rep. Ken Furr, 58 to 42 percent. Burr had slightly edged Furr in a three-way race on May 6.

Furr was appointed to the seat in August of 2007 after former Rep. David Almond resigned. Burr faces no opposition in November.

Rep. Paul Luebke says he'll press for instant runoffs in 2009.

The Durham Democrat, who sponsored a pilot project for municipal elections in 2005, says that the concept was "scary" to a lot of legislators, but after elections in Cary and Hendersonville he thinks they may be more open to it.

"In 2009, if I'm back I expect to participate in a discussion about how we could use instant-runoff voting as a statewide policy," he said.

The city of Wilmington has asked for a local bill seeking authority to do instant runoffs this session, though it is currently stuck in a committee, he noted.  

Citing today's labor commissioner runoff, Luebke said that the traditional primary runoff method has its own risks, including extremely low turnout.

"It's really not a good idea to have so few people deciding these runoff races," he said. 

Mary Fant Donnan would be willing to consider instant runoffs.

The candidate for the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner said she first learned about the voting method while living in Australia in the late 1980s.

That country uses both instant runoffs and other forms of preferential voting in various races.

"It made sense to me, but I think there are things I've heard about that raise questions about how well it works — both making it simple and being careful not to disenfranchise voters," she said. "I don't have a particular thought about instant runoffs the way it's been proposed."

Donnan said she has heard voters talking about instant runoffs as well as changing the required percentage for a winner in down-ballot races. She said she would be part of the discussion on either change going forward.

One thing she would not support is another Australian innovation: Compulsory voting.

"I couldn't see that would translate well into our culture," she said. 

Previously: Brooks opposes instant runoff voting. 

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."

Voter turnout today could reach a record low with only one statewide Democratic runoff on the ballot.

Gary Bartlett, the executive director of the State Board of Elections, said he would not be surprised if today's turnout fell below the 2.5 percent recorded in a Republican primary runoff for labor commissioner in 2000, Jane Ruffin reports.

The statewide runoff today pits Mary Fant Donnan, a program officer for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, against John C. Brooks, a former labor commissioner who was defeated in 1992. The winner will face incumbent Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry in November.

"It seems that probably the largest voting bloc out there today will be the election officials themselves," Bartlett said. "Certainly I would be very disappointed if they did not exercise their franchise."

Bartlett said the heaviest voting appeared to be in McDowell County, which is holding a mixed beverage referendum, and Yancey County, which has a hot school board contest.

At least a few unaffliated voters have reported problems when they went to vote today in the Democratic primary runoff for state labor commissioner.

Registered Democrats, unaffiliated voters who chose Democratic ballots in the May primary and unaffiliated voters who did not vote in May are eligible to participate today in the runoff for labor commissioner.

But in Wake County, several unaffiliated voters who cast Democratic ballots in May at Millbrook Exchange Park discovered a discrepancy in election records this morning.

The records incorrectly showed that they had cast unaffiliated ballots in May when they actually voted in the Democratic primary. The voters were allowed to cast provisional ballots today; in the meantime, elections officials will verify that they voted Democratic in May.

Wake Elections Director Cherie Poucher said election officials in May may have incorrectly marked a document called an "authorization to vote," erroneously recording an unaffiliated ballot when a voter actually asked for a Democratic ballot. However, election officials will be able to research other records that will show which ballot the voters received in May, she said.

Poucher said she had not received complaints about the issue this morning and assumed that the problem was not widespread.

The labor commissioner race had the lowest turnout on May 6.

Among the nine statewide races in the Democratic primary, the race between John C. Brooks and Mary Fant Donnan drew the lowest number of voters.

At 1.2 million votes, it was about 76 percent of the turnout of the presidential race. 

In order of turnout, the presidential race was followed by governor, U.S. senator, lieutenant governor, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, auditor, insurance commissioner and labor commissioner.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Agriculture Commissioner candidate Ronnie Ansley did not have primary opposition. 

Mary Fant Donnan says she would be an active labor commissioner.

The candidate for the Democratic nomination and former labor research director says she has three goals if elected to the office:

1. Use the bully pulpit. She would raise the profile of the office on labor issues, such as collective bargaining and the minimum wage. Her staff would develop policy positions on labor issues before the legislature and she would promote them.

2. Focus on training. She would work with employers and community colleges to expand worker training and apprenticeship programs. She says the state has not invested enough in training for skilled trade jobs such as construction.

3. Work with industry. She would work with industry leaders to share technological improvements that can improve workplace safety and make sure they are evenly applied. She says businesses don't share enough out of fear of their competition.