Charlotte, North Carolina, hasn't had a Democratic mayor in 22 years, even though there have been Democratic majorities on the city council and county commission most of those years. That changed yesterday.
Some Republicans around here, particularly a certain obnoxious county commissioner, believe they are actually the majority, or should be. But the numbers tell a different story. The Board of Elections published two interactive maps of yesterday's mayoral race. One shows the margin of victory for the candidates precinct by precinct. As expected, the most Republican precincts show wide margins for the Republican candidate. The pro-Democrat margins of victory were lower in the other precincts, but there are more of them. The other map shows precinct turnout, which was greater in the Republican districts. So even though a higher percentage of Republicans voted, there weren't enough of them.
Meanwhile, the Democrat majority on the city council grew to 8-to-3. The city and county are divided into seven districts that were carefully gerrymandered to assure perpetual Republican victories in three and perpetual Democrat victories in three others. In fact, some years opposition candidates don't even bother running, as was the case in the three city council races this year.
Besides the districts, there are four city- or county-wide at-large seats. The top four vote getters out of a field of seven to nine candidates win. This year, three of the four were Democrats. Republicans haven't won an at-large majority in a decade or more. Yet the delusion they're the majority still persists.
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