No major problems reported as North Carolinians vote on Super Tuesday

“Super Tuesday” sent voters in North Carolina and 13 other states off to the polls to finally have their say in a Democratic presidential race that dramatically shifted in just the last few days.

Karen Brinson Bell, director of the State Board of Elections, reported only two minor issues at two polling places, one in Onslow County, the other in Bertie County. In both cases, a printer was not properly connected to a laptop, preventing voter polling forms from being printed. Both issues were quickly corrected, she said.

Overall, Brinson said, the primary election — the first in decades in which all voters are casting paper ballots — went well.

“We are unaware of any major incidents affecting North Carolina,” she said at a Tuesday news conference.

Democracy North Carolina, a left-leaning election monitoring group, deployed 340 volunteers to polling places in 37 of the state’s 100 counties, agreed, saying no major hitches had been reported.

The group said during a Tuesday teleconference that voter turnout across the state started off slow but steady. By early afternoon, the group said, some polling places were reporting longer lines and wait times of up to an an hour.

“This is a high interest election, so that’s not surprising to us,” said Tomas Lopezm executive director of Democracy North Carolina.

Going into Super Tuesday, local election officials were anticipating a 30% turnout, said Kristin Mavromatis, spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County board of elections.

That was partly because nearly 800,000 North Carolinians voted early this year, with more than 500,000 of them casting ballots in the Democratic primary.

Besides voting for president, N.C. voters on and before Tuesday also picked party nominees for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, county commissioner and other offices.

Focus on presidential votes

With so much Democratic presidential candidate activity in February — debates, town halls and dropouts — even many early voters waited until the last minute to go to the polls. More than 250,000 voters cast their ballots on Friday and Saturday, the last two days of early voting.

The eventual Democratic nominee will face Republican President Donald Trump, who was in Charlotte for a campaign rally Monday night.

In the wake of his landslide win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, former Vice President Joe Biden went into Super Tuesday hoping to fuel his comeback bid with victories in other Southern states, including North Carolina. On Monday night, he received endorsements from three other moderates who have dropped out of the running: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

Up for grabs in North Carolina were 110 delegates at July’s Democratic convention. Only California and Texas have more delegates at stake Tuesday.

Tanya Archie-Young, 57, a medical tech who voted Tuesday at West Charlotte Recreation Center, said she decided to vote for Biden this week after seeing an advertisement featuring former President Barack Obama, who picked Biden as his vice president in 2008 and 2012.

“I feel like President Obama taught (Biden) a lot,” she said. “He can finish where Obama left off.”

But Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is still the front-runner nationally, was expected to do well in delegate-rich California, which also voted Tuesday. And some Charlotte voters said they checked his name Tuesday.

Donald Brown, who works as an auditor, said he voted for Sanders because “I think he’s probably the most progressive candidate.. He’s going to take the steps to get us where we need to go.”

Brown, who is 28, African American and voted at Midwood Baptist Church in Charlotte, acknowledged that many older black voters are supporting Biden. But he said younger African Americans like him are drawn to Sanders’ message.

“What you see on social media and when you talk to your peers, it’s Bernie,” he said.

Dropouts still there

The North Carolina ballot listed 15 Democratic presidential candidates, though many of them dropped out before Tuesday. The latest: Businessman Tom Steyer on Saturday, Buttigieg on Sunday and Klobuchar on Monday.

Stewart Murray, a resident of Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood who works in finance, didn’t want to reveal who he voted for. But he was willing to say who he had been planning to vote for.

“I wasn’t able to get my first choice: I was hoping for Pete,” he said, referring to Buttigieg. “I waited until the end (to vote), to see who was left.”

In Raleigh, Shelley Kimball-Dodge, who waited with her two dogs outside her polling place Tuesday, said that the latest presidential candidate dropouts didn’t shape her choice, but “it caused concern about how we can change the current political situation.”

Kimball-Dodge said she liked former candidate Buttigieg and Biden, but she voted for Sanders, even though she’s not sure if he can beat Trump. And beating Trump is her main concern.

“I look at who is the stronger candidate,” she said, “and I think Bernie is stronger.”

Bloomberg also on ballot

Super Tuesday was also to be the biggest test yet for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was on the ballot for the first time in the 14 states.

He lavished more attention and money on North Carolina than any of the other Democrat running for president. Besides campaign stops in the major cities — including two each in Charlotte and Raleigh — Bloomberg opened offices across the state and hired a paid staff of 125.

Bloomberg spent $15 million to blanket N.C. airwaves with ads promoting his record and qualifications for the country’s top job. That was nine times more than Sanders spent on ads in North Carolina and 60 times more than Biden spent.

Still, Bloomberg’s lackluster debate performances stalled his once-speedy rise in national and Super Tuesday polls.

When Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out in the days before Super Tuesday, Robert Bradham, 62, of Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood said Biden and Bloomberg were the only choices for him.

Bradham, a furniture maker who voted at Covenant Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, chose Bloomberg. He cited the candidate’s experience running a business and as mayor of America’s largest city.

A close contest

Most N.C. polls leading up to Tuesday’s vote had Biden and Sanders in a close contest for the lead, with Bloomberg in third place.

Biden was endorsed by North Carolina’s three Democratic members of Congress: Reps. Alma Adams, David Price and G.K. Butterfield.

But Bloomberg managed to get the backing of many of the state’s leading Democrats, including Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin and the top Democrats in the legislature — Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue and House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, both of Raleigh.

Also in Bloomberg’s corner: Former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl.

Biden vs. Sanders

Biden is hoping to turn the Democratic presidential contest a two-man race with Sanders.

Supporters for each of them weren’t hard to find Tuesday.

At Southern Lee High School in Lee County, Sandra Stedman, 63, said she believes President Trump will be defeated in November. And she voted Tuesday for Biden, President Barack Obama’s vice president, to be the one to do it.

“He speaks what (former President) Obama spoke,” said Stedman. “He does what Obama did. He helped Obama.”

At N.C. Central University in Durham, 20-year-old Nya McGee voted for the first time. She picked Sanders after noting his campaign’s strong presence on social media. She said she believes Sanders can make a difference in helping college students and people in poverty.

“It really meant a lot to me to actually read through everything and make sure I knew what’s going on out in the state,” McGee said.

(Raleigh) News & Observer’s Brooke Cain, Kate Murphy, Martha Quillin and Dan Kane contributed