Tonight at 9pm President Obama will give his first State of the Union address where I imagine he'll both look back at what has happened in the past year, as well as where we are heading in the years to come.  I'll be listening on NPR for the first part since I'll be driving home from Raleigh to Chapel Hill at 9 (I checked with the WUNC Interim Program Director and they will be broadcasting it).  Since many local elections are the country will be affected the general mood towards Democrats, and President Obama is the captain of that ship, I think it is a good time to look at what he has accomplished, and what he still needs to do.

Since this area plays such a strong role in the democratic politics/ideals in this state, & since one of our own might join the race, I think this will be an interesting topic for discussion.
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall vs Durham Lawyer Kenneth Lewis vs Captain in the United States Army Reserve & former State Senator Cal Cunningham vs Mayor Kevin Foy

vs vs vs

Because of rightful pushback from military and overseas voters, the 2009 General Assembly made some significant changes in the absentee voting law effective 1/1/2010, among them:

1) Number of witnesses on an absentee ballot dropped from two to one

2) For the presidential general election, ballots will be mailed out 60 days before the election, rather than 50 days.

3) Current law requires ballots to be received by 5:00 pm on the DAY BEFORE the election. New law provides for ALL PRIMARIES AND ELECTIONS that:

        a. for military and overseas voters, ballot must be received  by 5:00 pm on Friday, three days AFTER the election. There is no postmark requirement, as the military rarely uses postmarks.

With the Orange County School Board (OCSB) elections looming (among others), and the frustration of the last year lingering with many parents and concerned citizens, we have a real chance to make a change.

What say you – we always have that opportunity?

Yes, of course you are right – the right to vote is fundamental in our society. And a right we should willingly act upon at every chance.

So – I have a confession to make...

There is an extremely high likelihood that I voted for a much maligned outgoing member of the School Board four years ago. For those of you who have not attended OCSB meetings this past year, let me just say that this woman and I have VERY different viewpoints on the process of educating our children.

FYI, I am working on adding much more information about the candidates in this year's primary, which is only a month away! The current election info page doesn't even list all of the races, but I hope to add much more - including web sites, maps, etc. In case you see anything that looks funny on OP in the next week or so, it's probably me experimenting and developing this new database of candidate information.

Also, I could use some help with finding and entering data on all the candidates. Please let me know if you'd like to help. Thanks!

A coworker of mine is organizing this event. Here is the information below:

Hello Folks,

My name is Nick Auten. I am a Carrboro resident and am a volunteer for the Hampton Dellinger Lieutenant Gubernatorial campaign in Orange County. Today, many of us will have our precinct meetings that will kick off our collective preparation for the 2008 Primaries on May 6th. I am very excited and optimistic for the advancement of progressive policies at a federal, state, and local level this election cycle!

We have some good Democratic candidates to choose from for the Lt. Governor's race. I would like to give you some weblinks that have some content about Hampton Dellinger for you to read and also tell you about some organizations that feel the same way that I do about his candidacy: that Hampton Dellinger is the most electable progressive on the ticket.

Al Gore supports Dellinger's environmental stances: http://www.charlotte.com/politics/story/491485.html

I was thinking the other day about the possibility, albeit slim, that come primary-time in May I'd have the ability to vote for a full slate of folks who live within five or ten miles of my front door. I won't say that any of these would have been my natural choice, but I'm assuming that even with his campaign in suspension, Edwards will still be on the ballot for president; Chapel Hillians Jim Neal and David Price could snatch my votes for Senate and House; at least in theory I could vote for Chapel Hill resident Bev Purdue for governor; and let's not forget lieutenant governor candidate Hampton Dellinger, who grew up in town though he's since fled to Durham.