In a tight Democratic primary involving 3 candidates for 2 seats in Orange County's district 1, civil rights attorney and former Carrboro alderman Mark Dorosin came out ahead with 10,474 votes. He will be joined on the Board of Commissioners by current Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich (9709 votes). Because there was no Republican primary in district 1 this year, Dorosin and Rich will take their seats after the general election in November. They will replace outgoing commissioner Valerie Foushee and incumbent commissioner Pam Hemminger (9167 votes).

In the statewide vote, Amendment One passed easily with 61% of the vote. However, Orange County overwhelmingly rejected the amendment by a vote of 79% to 21%. (Our neighbors in Durham County likewise voted 70% to 30% against the amendment.) Some precincts in Carrboro and Chapel Hill voted against the amendment almost unanimously. The map below shows the Orange County precinct-level results of the referendum.

In August 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina Foundation filed public records requests with all 100 North Carolina counties and all police departments in municipalities with populations larger than 30,000. The requests were part of a nationwide effort coordinated by the ACLU to determine under what circumstances law enforcement agencies are tracking cell phones. Both the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Chapel Hill Police Department received the requests, and here's what the ACLU found.

The editors of OrangePolitics are excited to announce our live online candidate forums for the upcoming Orange County Board of Education general election and Orange County Board of Commissioners Democratic primary election.

Last night, the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to set June 30, 2013, as the closing date of the county’s municipal waste landfill, and to pursue a costly interlocal agreement to ship our trash to Durham’s waste transfer station.

A few years ago, did you imagine you would find yourself wondering whether the Orange County Board of Commissioners supported basic progressive causes like enhanced public transit and smart land use planning?

Alderman Dan Coleman plans to introduce a resolution against corporate personhood to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. In an e-mail to his colleagues on the board, Coleman asked that the draft resolution be added to the board's January 17 agenda. The resolution responds to the 2010 US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, which essentially cleared the way for unlimited election spending by corporations and other groups.

Here are our maps of the school board election results. Although they don't tell as interesting a story as the Chapel Hill maps, I wouldn't want to disappoint James Barrett by neglecting to publish them.

Something happens when I make these maps. So much time goes into pulling them together, I finish without the energy to engage in a lot of commentary. But I know the rest of you election geeks can do the job, so...

First, the table below shows the number of precincts in which the leading candidates came in first, second, third, and fourth places.

An announcement from the Carrboro Bicycle Coalition:

Did you know that Carrboro's town code for bicyclists is actually stricter than North Carolina state law?