No Surprises

As I predicted, the fall elections were not competitive. The election drew 2000 fewer people to the polls than last year, but still posted the 2nd best fall turnout ever.

An Independent and a Progress Party candidate split the now-2-seat district of Family Housing. O&B won in Murphree and in Keys. The Greek and FBK-backed Unite party won everything else, 46 seats out of 50.

But the interesting tid bit is how close the Unite party vote tracked with the No vote on the ban on “I voted” stickers. More interesting still is that Unite actually posted more votes in Districts A and B than their twins in the Gator party last year – while nearly everywhere else, everyone’s vote totals dropped (including half the 2008 turnout in District D).

What is says is that Unite broke the bank on turnout in the hopes of saving the “I Voted” stickers, which is a key element in their get-out-the-vote drives among the Greek Houses. Yet, their extra push resulted in wasted votes for Senate candidates in their strongholds. For example, Unite won 1,700 votes in District A compared to just 300 for their combined opposition. 1,000 voters could have stayed home in the area surrounding Sorority Row, and Unite will would have won a landslide in that district (not to mention still win the sticker initiative quite handily).

Perhaps next time the GDI forces won’t make such a direct bid to eliminate an element of the FBK voting machine. Or perhaps next time FBK won’t freak out so much and overplay their hand on such issues.