Vote Tuesday, no really

I was Voter 202 on June 9th.  My husband is spending the summer in Greece, so we wanted to vote before he left town, otherwise Hillsborough would have been a bit of a hike when we could have waited until election day and voted near our home.  I have to imagine that a lot of voters are waiting for just that.This election I expect will be especially bad for student voter representation.  No early voting near campus for those students are in town to walk to.  And then there are all the students who have updated their registration to Chapel Hill who are home for the summer who probably wont vote either.On the other hand, another way to look at it is that those of us who chose to vote get more say than usual due to the low turnout.For the record, I too am partial to Elaine.  On LGBT issues she has take on DOMA repeal and UAFA on her campaign website, but Cal does not.  Cal Cunningham has said he supports UAFA (to allow bi-national gay couples to be together) but wont put it up on his campaign website even though he already has a gay rights section.The main difference in the candidates, as highlighted by the debates, is that Elaine opposed the surge in Afghanistan and seems to want to get our troops home in short order, whereas Cal us to stay until we finish the job.I am a fan of Cal's strong support of Voter Owned Elections.So I voted Elaine, but I'll gladly take Cal as an improvement over Burr any day.  I'm going to keep pushing Cal on UAFA though until its on his website.As far as viability against Burr goes, Elaine came in first in the first round of the primaries, and in 2008 she had more votes in NC than Obama, Hagan, or Perdue which I think says something for her ability to garner broad support.

Can you name the 7 townships in Orange County?

Townships were governmental units post civil war through late 19th century. Justices of the peace for each township met together and ran the county, pre county-commissioners, but justices of the paeace were appointed by the General Assembly. Even after townships withered as governmental units and JPs lost their judicial and administrative powers, the General Assembly still appointed them, see this 1963 legislation:http://ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/sessionlaws/html/1963-1964/sl1963-1248.htmlAN ACT TO APPOINT JUSTICES OF THE PEACE FOR THE SEVERAL COUNTIES OF NORTH CAROLINA. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:Section 1. The following named persons are hereby appointed justices of the peace for their respective townships and counties in North Carolina, for a term of two years, said terms to begin on July 1, 1963, unless otherwise provided in this Act: .....ORANGE COUNTYChapel Hill Township: Mrs. LaRue C. Farlow.....also seehttp://ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_153a/gs_153a-19.html GS 153A-19 Establishing and naming townships.(a)        A county may by resolution establish and abolish townships, change their boundaries, and prescribe their names, except that no such resolution may become effective during the period beginning January 1, 1998, and ending January 2, 2000, and any resolution providing that the boundaries of a township shall change automatically with changes in the boundaries of a city shall not be effective during that period. The current boundaries of each township within a county shall at all times be drawn on a map, or set out in a written description, or shown by a combination of these techniques. This current delineation shall be available for public inspection in the office of the clerk.(b)        Any provision of a city charter or other local act which provides that the boundaries of a township shall change automatically upon a change in a city boundary shall not be effective during the period beginning January 1, 1998, and ending January 2, 2000.(c)        The county manager or, where there is no county manager, the chairman of the board of commissioners, shall report township boundaries and changes in those boundaries to the United States Bureau of the Census in the Boundary and Annexations Survey. In responding to the surveys, each county manager or, if there is no manager, chairman of the board of commissioners shall consult with the county board of elections and other appropriate local agencies as to the location of township boundaries, so that the Census Bureau's mapping of township boundaries does not disagree with any county voting precinct boundaries that may be based on township boundaries. (1868, c. 20, s. 8; Code, s. 707; Rev., s. 1318; C.S., s. 1297; 1973, c. 822, s. 1; 1987, c. 715, s. 1; c. 879, s. 2; 1993, c. 352, s. 1; 1995, c. 423, s. 4.)In 1901, Hillsborough Township was divided into Eno, Cheeks, and Hillsborough, with part of Little River being added to Eno that same year.

county government will not be able to step up and tell you the relevance of townships because they are irrelevant.Townships largely became inoperative and irelevant when the General Assembly made county government elective instead of being run by JPs appointed by the General Assembly on a township basis.  There were township taxing districts for roads throughout the state (not sure about Orange) until 1937 when the General Assembly took over roadbuilding and forbade counties and townships from building roads. Many of them had gone bankrupt in the Great Depression.

to preserve my perfect voting record there have been two meaningless runoffs that I voted a blank ballot. In 1982 At Colonial Heights in a State Auditor runoff I checked in, got my ballot and immediately dropped  it in the box. The chief judge began shoouting "you forgot to mark your ballot" I answered "I didn't forget"

I'd encourage everyone to vote for Marshall. She is in favor of getting out of Afghanistan.Want to know why we have funding problems? About $2600 per citizen in the U.S. goes to the annual military budget.

is how I view this situation.Elaine Marshall, as Sec of State & a former State Senator, has a pretty solid background.Borrowing from this postinghttp://bluenc.com/nc-sen-elaine-marshalls-closing-and-opening-argument

In addition, Marshall is a proven vote‐getter. In 2004, when Bush
carried the Republican ticket, Marshall received over 100,000 more votes
than Burr, and in 2008, she received the second highest vote total in
North Carolina history.
In the PPP poll taken on June 8, Marshall trails Burr by only 7 points
and is the only candidate among Burr, Cal Cunningham and Marshall who
has a net positive approval rating. She is also competitive across
demographic and geographic lines. She leads Burr among women and in the
919 area code (Triangle). She is tied with him in all of eastern North
Carolina and the 704 area code (Charlotte). In contrast, Cunningham
trails Burr heavily in virtually every category.

In 2008 she got more votes than Obama, Perdue, or Hagan, so I think she has some real bipartisan viability.  Cal on the other hand as a former state senator with a military background could be appealing to NC voters too.They are both good on gays rights stuff, but Elaine is better.  Cal is stronger on supporting Voter Owned Elections which is something I like.Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is Elaine opposed the Apghanistan surge, whereas Cal supported it and would like us to stay until the job is done.  Although I don't think either of them are anywhere close to the republican position of no-timelines/indefinite war. Burr is so bad for NC in so many ways that I will be excited to vote for either candidate come Nov.  But to answer your question of who has the best chance against Burr, the answer is Elaine.  She has consistantly polled better than Cal against Burr, and has a history of doing really well in elections, including being the top vote getting in the first primary.  No argument for viability can be stronger than that.