Pundit of the Year

OP's annual election prediction contest is coming up soon so dust off your thinking caps, y'all!

How did we do?

OK, first the election results. Congratulations Barry, Earl, Lindy, Debbia, Donna, Brenda, and Anne! Then, the Pundits of the Year! (I know you can't wait, right?)

These are final UNOFFICIAL results from the NC Board of Elections awesome web site (click the "map" links to see results by precinct)...

Who's the biggest political geek in the county?

Play now!

OK, the election is a few days away. This has not been the most exciting election season, but sometimes the smallest stakes can inspire the strongest emotions. It's time for our annual Pundit of the Year contest.

Submissions are open until 7:30 pm on Tuesday (when the real polls also close). Results will be announced by the weekend. The winner gets a free OP t-shirt or hat in the size and color of your choosing (by way of a gift certificate to the online OP store).

The wisdom of crowds

I was a little worried that the polling in Chapel Hill would screw up the annual Pundit of the Year contest, but since PPP Polls had Penny in 6th and she actually came in 1st, I think we can safely say that pundits had to rely on their own intuition. No-one (not even Penny) predicted Penny would come first in Chapel Hill so no contestants won on the order.

The following people did predict the winners correctly in all of the races though, and most of them put their entries in before Tom Jensen announced the PPP figures anyway: Jason Baker, Penny Rich, Mark Chilton, Erin Crouse, and Greg Bell! Each of them will get a gift certificate for OP's Zazzle print-on-demand store.

In averaged results, the contestants as a whole picked the winners in every race except for School Board. However, we got the order wrong on the Chapel Hill Town Council and Carrboro Board of Aldermen due to the success of challengers Penny Rich and Sammy Slade. Read on for aggregated predictions...