Foxx wins! Lassiter doesn’t

Whew. That was close. But, only one candidate can win and that distinction goes to Democrat Anthony Foxx, who will forevermore be known as Charlotte’s second African-American mayor.

Early voting data came in first, as you’d expect, and put Foxx out front. Within an hour, however, his lead slipped and his rival, Republican John Lassiter, was in the lead.

Now, I hate horse race electoral coverage as much as the next person — but this really was one of those elections where one minute one candidate lead by a couple hundred votes and 10 minutes later the other one was in the lead by a few hundred.

If you’re interested in a play-by-play on the the night, check out the #CLTvote Twitter hashtag. (If you want to read them in order, read the older posts first.)

Not long after 10 p.m., the final tally was in and Foxx was named the winner with 51.48 percent of the vote to Lassiter’s 48.45 percent. There were 73 write-in votes. (Really?)

The pathetic news: Only only 106,994 citizens chose to vote for the next leader of the country’s 19th largest city. What gives, people? If any election should prove that your vote counts, it’s this one.

If you’re wondering how your ‘hood voted, check out this cool interactive map from The Charlotte Observer.

In related news, voters cleaned house in the school board election and three towns in Union County will now serve mixed drinks.

Watch Lassiter’s concession speech here, Foxx’s victory speech here (do note the color and tone of the crowds, will ya) and one of the winner’s campaign ads here:

This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2009.