[MUDDOG]

This is why you need a 50%+1 run-off rule.

NC has a 40%+1 rule, which means Kay Hagan can win by splitting the nonliberal vote. She couldn't in a 50%+1 rule.

[MUDDOG]

Correction to my Post #35:

In NC, the 40% runoff rule applies only to primaries. You can win the general election with any plurality.

So the gist of my earlier post still stands, that Kay Hagan can win by splitting the nonliberal vote.

Georgia has a 50%+1 runoff rule for the general election, which allowed Repub Paul Coverdell in 1992 to defeat in a runoff the incumbent Democratic US senator Wyche Fowler, who had won the plurality in the general election.