Election voted top story of '04
January 01,2005
Sun Journal Staff



Upsets, allegations, personalities and controversy swirled around the 2004 election process.

Incumbent N.C. House member Mike Gorman lost in July's delayed primary, in which voter fraud was alleged in Jones County.

The Nov. 2 general election featured incorrect vote totals blamed on electronic voting software that was eventually corrected as well as triumphs for Scott Thomas and Alice Underhill.

Those were just some of the reasons the Sun Journal voted the election as the biggest story of 2004 by an overwhelming margin.

In voting by staffers, the election received six first-place votes and 120 points, while the number of deadly wrecks on area roads received 74 points as the second-biggest story of 2004.

The top 10 stories of 2004 were:

1. Election (120)

From a delayed North Carolina primary to problems with vote totals, the 2004 election process kept voters wondering last year.

Redistricting was finally settled, but the delayed primary in July produced an upset when Gorman lost to Michael Speciale, while four voters were charged with fraud in Jones County for voting twice.

Speciale lost to Underhill in the Nov. 2 general election as the Democrats gained back the state house seat Underhill had lost two years earlier. Meanwhile, Thomas beat Republican Chuck Tyson in a heated state Senate race.

Still, the winners weren't so much the story as the problems with electronic voting machines. Craven County's first unofficial vote totals were skewed and showed Republican challenger Tony Michalek had defeated incumbent Democrat Leon Staton for the District 5 Board of Commissioners seat.

The Sun Journal discovered the error Nov. 3, which officials said would have been caught during the official vote canvass, and the corrected totals showed Staton had kept his seat.

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