Instant runoff voting is slowing down.

Only one North Carolina town — Hendersonville — will use the voting method this year as part of a pilot project.

After using instant-runoff voting, plurality elections and traditional runoffs, the Cary Town Council decided to stick with a traditional runoff.

Instant runoff voting is a newer method that avoids the expense of a second election by allowing voters to designate a second choice on their ballot. If no candidate wins a majority, second-choice votes are then counted, essentially creating an "instant" runoff.

Wednesday was the deadline for a town or city to volunteer with the State Board of Elections for the voting method in this fall's elections.

Voter activist Joyce McCloy, who opposes IRV, called it a "blow to lobbying groups who had set their hopes" on Cary.

The North Carolina NAACP blasted the U.S. Supreme Court today for its interpretation of the federal Voting Rights Act, saying the decision was a “direct blow” to the state’s efforts to heal the “racist wounds of the past.”

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision issued Monday, found that the Voting Rights Act did not apply to legislative districts that are less than 50 percent minority. As a result, state lawmakers will have to re-fashion districts in the Wilmington area so that Pender County is not split among two districts.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said the decision ignores the troubled history in that part of the state, reports Dan Kane.

In 1898, white supremacist mobs came to Wilmington, which was governed by a “Fusionist” coalition of black and white council members. The mobs drove out the elected leaders, burned down a black-owned newspaper and killed at least 14 blacks.

“Somebody’s really got to examine this from the perspective that people don’t really know the history,” Barber said. “They don’t know that Pender County was separated (from New Hanover County) to make it an all-white county.”

More after the jump.

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Recent bills filed in the Senate of note:

S.B. 235: Personal Protection in Restaurants, Sen. Andrew Brock

S.B. 236: Notarized Consent for Minor's Abortion, Sen. Brock

S.B. 237: Voting Materials in English, Sen. Brock

S.B. 259: Interscholastic Sports Open to All Students, Sen. Jim Jacumin

S.B. 262: Expunctions/Purge Online Databases, Sen. Phil Berger

A bill would allow voters to get help casting a ballot without needing a reason.

Sen. R.C. Soles, a Columbus County Democrat, said he filed the bill to clear up a conflict between state and federal law about who can get assistance.

Under state law, voters may only get help if they are physically disabled, illiterate or blind. Only a member of their immediate family, in-law or step relation could help.

Federal law is less restrictive, allowing any voter to get help from anyone they designate.

Soles said the conflict led to "some confusion" during the November elections when a complaint was made that some voters who did not need help were getting it.

The bill would allow any voter to get help from anyone they designate except a representative of their employer or union.

A few more interesting Senate bills filed recently:

S.B. 49: Broaden Price Gouging Restrictions, Sen. Steve Goss

S.B. 50: Storage Fees by Towing Services/SHP Rotation, Sen. Goss

S.B. 56: Assistance to Voters, Sen. R.C. Soles Jr.

Democracy North Carolina says 2008 was the Year of the Voter.

In a year-end recap, the nonpartisan voting rights group says high interest in the Democratic primary and the November elections made this "a banner for voter participation."

A few of the numbers it cites:

VOTER TURNOUT: North Carolina led the nation as the state with the biggest increase in voter turnout over 2004. A record 4.35 million Tar Heels cast ballots in the general election, a big jump over the 3.55 million in 2004 and a 70 percent turnout of 6.2 million registered voters, compared to the 64% turnout in 2004.

EARLY VOTING: A record 2.4 million people voted at 368 Early Voting sites across the state. That's more than double the number who voted at the 250 sites opened in the 2004 general election. Another 228,000 voted absentee by mail, bringing the total number of early voters to 2.64 million, or 61 percent of all voters.

SAME-DAY VOTING: During 2008, just over 49,000 used Same Day Registration to participate in the primary and another 188,000 used it during the general election. About half of them were first-time voters in the county, while the other half used the new law to update an old registration.

BLACK VOTERS: More than one million African Americans voted in North Carolina in 2008. In 2004, only 59 percent of registered black voters turned out compared to 66 percent of registered whites. But in 2008, a record 74 percent voted, surpassing the rate of whites (69 percent) for the first time.

PUBLIC FINANCING: Eleven of the 12 candidates in contested races for the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals qualified for public financing, as did nine of the 11 candidates in the primary and four of the six candidates in the general for auditor, insurance commissioner and schools superintendent.

Still, the group saw room for improvement in voter involvement.

"One third of the voting-age citizens didn't vote in 2008, so we have plenty of room for improvement, but this year showed the way toward moving North Carolina closer to a government of, for, and by the people," said Director Bob Hall.

It's official: The November election is over.

The State Board of Elections signed off Tuesday on the results, approving the numbers in a canvass that brought no objections.

Elections director Gary Bartlett said that the board usually hears up to 10 election concerns, but there were no protests and the only pending issue had already been investigated.

"Zero issues — it doesn't get any better than that," he said.

He attributed the quiet to luck and training. Two candidates for school board in Nash County were inadvertently left off the ballot, but they had no opposition.

Two potential trouble spots turned out to be non-issues: The high volume of voters and the tricky "straight-ticket" ballot.

Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina said he'd like to expand early voting, which was a success. (AP)

Jack Betts says Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians benefited from straight-ticket voting.

After looking at the results of the November election, the Charlotte Observer columnist writes that all three parties drew more straight-ticket ballots than their party representation would suggest.

Democrats represent 46 percent of registered voters, but drew 58.8 percent of straight ticket votes. Republicans represent 32 percent of voters, but drew 40.4 percent of straight ticket votes.  

This is not quite the same as saying that all those straight-party Democratic ballots were cast by Democrats, or that all those Republican straight-party ballots were cast by Republicans. There may have been a number of straight-ticket ballots cast by unaffiliated voters, who make up 22 percent of the state's registered voters. And of course there might have been some crossover straight tickets, too. 

He also notes that the 19,054 Libertarian straight-ticket ballots far outnumbere the 3,683 registered Libertarian voters.

Which North Carolina Congressman was most popular?

That depends on how you break down the numbers, but U.S. Rep. David Price clearly won the largest number of votes in the November elections.

The Chapel Hill Democrat snagged 265,751 votes. The next most popular were Reps. Sue Myrick (241,053), Brad Miller (221,379), Howard Coble (221,018) and Mel Watt (215,908).

The numbers are slightly different if you look at percentages, though.

From that perspective, Watt was the most popular, winning 71.6 percent of the vote, followed by Reps. G.K. Butterfield (70.3), Mike McIntyre (68.9), Coble (67) and Bob Etheridge (66.9). 

Either way, the least popular was Rep.-elect Larry Kissell, who picked up just 157,185 votes, or 55.4 percent.

Generally speaking, the newer members of Congress were less popular than the older ones.