But what can they do? Impatient objection to elected officials behavior has become a recurring theme. The most recent example is San Diego's Bob Filner, who, fully cured of his unhappy habit of sexually assaulting women, faces a slow, tedious recall effort while he stays on as mayor. Such recalls seem to have been abundant recently — attempts to recall legislators in Colorado over gun control measures, last year's unsuccessful push to purge Wisconsin's Scott Walker. That Wisconsin recall effort culminated in an early June vote, but began 16 months previously. Slow, tedious, and — for recall backers — fruitless.

In North Carolina, even that isn't an option. The map at right shows those states in which recall of the executive or legislature is allowed (dark red) or only the executive (light red), using data from Ballotpedia. (Local laws may allow recall of local officials — which is what Filner faces in San Diego.) North Carolina, like much of the South and Northeast, remains stubbornly gray, despite some attempts to instantiate recalls in the state. Even if it were, attempting to recall the governor and enough of the legislature to restore what the state hails as the "middle way" would be an almost impossible task. This is essentially what was attempted in Wisconsin. The governor and a dozen members of the legislature faced recall. Only three members of the legislature lost.

For those in North Carolina who are unhappy with how things are going, there are only two courses of action. The first is to get the legislature to pass (and the governor to sign) new legislation allowing for the recall of state officials. Given the situation, that seems unlikely. The second is to wait. The next legislative elections are only 15 months away.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.