Island of Blue in a Red State

The O'Bama/Biden ticket had even more support at the official polls than President Obama did at Ocracoke School, garnering 64.8% of the adult popular vote. Combining early voting and yesterday's results, Ocracoke citizens cast 310 votes for Barack O'Bama, 154 for Mitt Romney, and 6 for Gary Johnson. (For the complete Hyde County results, click here. For a post-Election Day sing-a-long, click here.)

Never quite in step with the rest of Hyde County, Ocracoke could not sway the mainland vote. As a whole, the county went to Romney, with a margin of 26 votes. 

Ocracoke went blue in the governor's race as well, voting for Walter Dalton, who was beaten in Hyde County, and the state, by Pat McCrory. In the Lt. Governor's race, Ocracoke chose the losing side with Democrat Linda Coleman. She won overall in Hyde County, but lost in the state. Our new Lt. Governor will be Republican Dan Forest.

Democrat Stan White easily held onto his NC Senate seat, winning on the island and mainland. 

The NC House of Representatives will welcome newcomer Paul Tine. Tine, a Democrat from Kitty Hawk, beat his competitor Mattie Lawson by 463 votes overall in the Hyde County. Perhaps his visit to Ocracoke School put him in the lead.

On Ocracoke, and over on the mainland, straight party ticket voters are overwhelmingly Democrats. Ocracoke had 135 straight Democrats and 42 straight Republicans. In the county overall, the vote was 625 to 337. Clearly this says something about the two parties, but what?

Incumbent U.S. house of Representatives member Walter B. Jones was the only Republican that Ocracoke embraced, choosing him over his challenger, Erik Anderson, by a margin 25 votes. Jones took the rest of the county as well. 

In local races, these are the winners and losers:

Fairfield Commissioner:
- Anson Byrd, 1159; Lindsey Mooney III, 639
Lake Landing Commissioner:
- Earl D. Pugh, 1262; Sharon P. Spencer, 1030
Ocracoke Commissioner:
- John Fletcher II, 1643
Soil and Water District Supervisor:
- Darren Armstrong, 1569; write-in 38

Engelhard Sanitary District:

- write-ins 27

Ocracoke Sanitary District:
- Scott Bradley, 275; Joan O’Neal, 267; George Robertson Jr., 251; write-ins 20.
Swan Quarter Sanitary District:
- Wayne Hodges, 67; write-ins 67.