Endorsements, please!

in making my voting decision, in general & specifically when looking at judges, is:
http://equalitync.org/pac/2008g

That list basically has no disagreements with the Orange County Democratic Party endorsement list (I just got my OCDP newspaper-guide thing in the mail today). The OCDP leaves the judicial race between Ervin & Kristen Ruth unmarked, but equalityNC says Kristin Ruth is worthy of endorsement so that has me leaning towards her until I do more research.

On a related note to the election, I am considering voting early. The downside is that is kind of fun to participate in the actual process of voting on the day of, and it is my understanding that early votes aren't counted until the day after the election (i'm not sure where i heard that or how accurate it is), but with NC as a battleground state I'd hate to think the state was called before my vote was counted. I mean I'm sure I would end up voting on election day provided I didn't suffer some traumatic injury that rendered me unconscious all day... and even then I might find a way to vote. But on the other hand I've heard campaigns are tracking how many people have early voted in certain areas and using that info to determine where to shift their resources (again I'm not sure how accurate this is).

So as someone who lives near my voting site, does it make more sense to early vote, or vote on voting day?

 By voting early, Jake, you create one space in the line of hundreds voting at your precinct on Election Day.  Early votes go into the same hopper with absentee ballots and votes cast on 11/4.  Nothing gets counted until the big day.  Long lines on the big day, however, discourage voters who prefer not to stand for uncomfortable stretches of time.  We're looking at very long lines on Election Day this year. 

Early voting you  can go to the most convenient place -- Carrboro Town Hall is my personal favorite, Morehead Planetarium second.  The other day I spoke with many people who plan to use the CH Senior Center because they help elderly people.  But every precinct offers car-side voting; the helper goes inside to request assistance, and a BOE person provides it.  

I have the same romance about voting on Election Day.  One way to get over it is to work the polls on Election Day!  

I'm with Cat on this one -- if you have flexibility and can vote early then do.

Election day is not a day off for many people also enthralled with the romance of election day (and not reading OP) -- a broken machine in a crucial voting site can change the entire timing of the day, the ability of voters to get to work, day care pick-ups and the end of the school  day.

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/pdf/BySection/Chapter_163/GS_163-234.pdf

BJ Lawson has my vote for Congress, since he seems better on almost all usual Democratic strongpoints than Price-- i.e. no corporate welfare, no lobbyists, no Patriot Act! (which Price unfortunately voted for), no war funding and no war, no bailouts for billionaires, no federal War on Drugs, that sort of thing.

Perusing a file at the State Board of Elections website

ftp://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/data/2008_new_reg_200810.zip

I've found affirmation that voter registration in Orange is totally off the charts.  The file ONLY includes those processed through October 8, so it does not include the backlog at the Board of Elections office last Wednesday, nor those received Thursday and Friday (the last two days) nor those postmarked Friday that will probably show up tomorrow in Hillsborough (and the last few days are typically the heaviest).

Here is the breakdown:

TOTAL NEW VOTERS SINCE JANUARY 1:

19,199

DEM 52.07%

REP: 12.43%

UNAFF: 35.27%

LIBERTARIAN: 0.23%

Date breakout:

Since primary: 10,510

registered at early voting: 1,619

registered January 1 until early voting: 7,979

By age:

18-21 42.20%

22-25   15.36%

I just went in to vote early, only to discover that when you vote early, you can't vote early.  (They don't open at the Morehead Planetarium until 9:00 a.m.)

Anyhow, I was planning to vote the straight ticket until, a few minutes before arriving at the Morehead, I heard on the Brad & Britt Show that Mark Chilton had endorsed the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Pat McCrory.  This stunned me, and suggests to me that there's probably more to the race than I had understood.  So could somebody please enlighten me?  I had never imagined voting for a Republican in a governor's race before; is there a good reason to do so now?

McCrory supports writing discrimination into the North Carolina Constitution through passage of a same-sex marriage ban amendment.  According to EqualityNC he opposed even the most basic protections for GLBT city employees, fought to keep Charlotte Pride out Marshall Park, and famously snubbed HRC's annual fundraising dinner.  I have a friend who works for the city of Charlotte who has watched with great dismay as McCrory has taken every opportunity during his time in office to ally himself with the anti-equality crowd including Operation Save America (I'll give you one guess who they're trying to save America from.)

In addition McCrory supports efforts to get executions started again in our state.  His responses to the current pause on executions clearly indicate a basic lack of understanding of the issue.  

Also, while Mark points out McCrory's position vis-a-vis the NC BOT, you fail to point out that Perdue shares the same position and supports additional measures including public financing and greater transparency in government.

Finally, as a former public school teacher in one of Charlotte's most "at-risk" high schools, I fear for the future quality of education in NC should McCrory's vochure plan gain further steam.

Vouchers are only one aspect of education that needs a more thorough vetting in this election. I won't be voting for Perdue due to her stance against allowing illegal immigrants to PAY for an education. The benefits of education are well known. One year of higher education has been correlated with higher income, better health, and a reduced likelihood of interacting with the criminal justice system. What benefit does it serve the state to deny that opportunity to any one?

I may vote for the Libertarian candidate as a protest. It's really hard to see any significant difference between Perdue and McCrory when you balance out all their equally objectionable stances.

Folks be sure to make the distinction.  Charters are public schools open to all.  Vouchers provide families funds to go to private schools.  I support much of what charters are accomplishing and the alternatives they provide.  I do not support vouchers as I think mainly upper class people will use them and they could very well cannabalize the public school system.

David Beck

I also have great respect and a long-time working relationship with both

Marks and Jim and agree with Jim's post above.  The reason that I had

to hold my nose when I voted for her was her link to the, frankly, corrupt

but hopefully improving democratic government in Raleigh.  I lost my respect for

Bev Perdue when she participated in the shenanigans to get the lottery

passed. 

Humorousy, I went to undergrad school at Bucknell in Lewsiburg, PA.

We always joked that Lewisburg's most famous resident was Jimmy Hoffa,

who served his time there in the federal prison.  Now as a North Carolinian

for 42 years (my God am I that old?) I chuckle that our famous Lewisburg

resident, and very correctly so, is Jim Black.  I just don't see Bev Perdue

reforming the government in Raleigh as well as McCrory would. 

Though like Mark and most of us on this blog, a life-long democrat, I think

that there is a time to sweep clean any government that is dominated for

years by one party, whichever one.  It's happening now in the presidential

campaign, and needs to happen in the Raleigh campaign.  Thank God that

we have Joe Hackney and Verla Insko to represent us.

Thank God that we have Ellie Kinnaird, Verla Insko and Joe Hackney

New voter registrations in Orange County 1/1/2008 through second day of onsite early voting registration. I believe this to be double what Orange usually gets in a presidential year.

Terri I don't think what we have is what most people mean by vouchers.  As a Carrboro Elem parent my understanding is that since Carrboro Elem failed one of the myriad NCLB standards 2 years running then the school system has to give another option.  I think the option is Estes Hills Elem or the new one, not a voucher.  To me, a voucher is basically a credit to cover some private school tuition. 

David Beck

Perhaps not as surprising as as Da Mayor's gubenatorial endorsement, but I stand by David Price. :) I urge those considering Mr. Lawson to take a hard look at what he believes.  I was looking at Rep. Price's ad in the Indy and was fairly shocked by Lawson's stand on specifids so I went to http://votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=102902 to get more info.  I don't think Mr. Lawson's stated views are at all what most of us consider "progressive".  For example, Lawson:

- opposes abortion in the case of rape or incest,

- supports the elimination of the income tax, corporate taxes, inheritence taxes, and capital gains taxes,

- thinks we should eliminate Federal funding for FEMA, International Aid, Medical Research, and the United Nations,

- appears to support partial privatization of Social Security.

There are many more postions listed at the link above. For the record, I do agree with Mr. Lawson and disagree with Rep. Price on some issues, such as ending the Death Penalty.  But overall, it's no contest.  Here's the link to Rep. Price's stated positions: http://votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=119

Mr. Lawson has succeeded in raising a lot of money and I heard one of his radio ads last night claiming to be a progressive w/o focusing on any real issues, other than vaguely "upholding the constitution".  So I hope people who are considering him as an alternative will take a close look at his stated beliefs.

David Beck

Just got this from the McCrory campaign.  As I said earlier, this guy turns my stomach:

You can tell the PacMan is getting desperate.  This email just came my way, courtesy of his hate-filled campaign.

-------------------------

Dear Newsmax Reader,

Gaston County, NC: A drunk driving illegal alien kills Scott Gardner, a school teacher, and critically injures his wife and two children.  This alien, Ramiro Gallegos, had been previously arrested five times for drunk driving and never deported as a criminal.  Nationally, 12 Americans are killed by illegal aliens each day.  Those casualty rates are higher than those in Iraq.  We are in a war at home and my opponent, regrettably, is on the wrong side.

In our first televised debate my opponent called for amnesty for illegal aliens, but she called it documenting undocumented immigrants. Her party’s platform has the radical notion that cops are too busy with parking tickets to handle arresting and detaining criminal illegal aliens.

According to FAIR, North Carolina taxpayers now pay for more than $771 million dollars in primary and secondary education because of illegal immigration’s impact.  And it’s not just money that is being siphoned off from your children's or grandchildren's education.  The quality of the education is going down.

I could not believe that we are using an honors world history textbook that says Ronald Reagan increased the tensions in the Cold War but didn’t have space enough to discuss Reagan’s role in defeating the Soviet Union so decisively that it collapsed.

No, that history text didn’t have space for Reagan’s role in world history but the text did have space for a Spanish glossary.

I don’t know about you, but I'd rather have Ronald Reagan than a Spanish glossary in our textbooks.

Worst of all, my opponent supports the policy of the State Board of Education (a board she votes on) forcing a higher standard for school registration on our fellow Americans than on illegals.  That’s right.  If a citizen registers their child for kindergarten, he or she must produce a birth certificate.  All an illegal has to do is point to the child’s name and a date written in the family Bible.

We can’t have harsher requirements for the people who are here legally than for illegals.

I have worked hard to bring jobs to North Carolina.  But illegal immigration is taking jobs from inner city youths who have fewer opportunities for entry level employment to start with. How would you like to be one of these kids who doesn’t get pregnant, works hard in school, doesn’t join a gang, goes to church on Sunday, but when they go down to the fast food restaurant, they are told we can’t hire you because we need bi-lingual employees.

It just goes on and on and it needs stop now.

As Governor, I will work to take away the incentives like in-state tuition for people who aren’t even supposed to be here that pull illegals into North Carolina.  I’ll work to expand the 287g program to help local law enforcement arrest, detain and deport criminal illegal aliens.

Get tough on illegals with your wallet

My opponent has two ways to pay for attack ads.  First, she is in the pocket of Big Labor and they are protecting their investment over the years by running large numbers of false and misleading attack ads against me.  And if that is not enough, she can always write her campaign a personal check for millions.

In a previous race running for Lt Governor, Perdue ran ads portraying herself as the coal miner’s daughter that made good.  Even the Left wing rag, the Independent, harshly criticized the ad because it forgot to mention that her daddy owned the mine.

I can’t defend myself alone against her millions and the deep pockets of the Big Labor bosses. I can’t write a million check or borrow it from my father.  My only hope is citizens like you who are fed up with the corruption in Raleigh that comes from one party rule will send small contributions.

She has big labor on her side, but I have you, the people of North Carolina.

I need your help and the help of everyone you know.

I am daily under attack by big labor using secret 527 committees.  The only way that I can get my message out is with generous contributions from citizens like you.  Can you see your way clear to send $25, $50 or $100 today.  Even $5 or $10 would help out. 

Americans losing job opportunities can’t speak for themselves.  I will speak for all citizens who want this mess to stop.

Sincerely,


PS. My opponent talks a lot about change but has no interest in changing this dire situation.  There are good changes and bad changes, right changes and wrong changes. Removing the magnets that draw illegals into our state is the right change for North Carolina.