Elections
News and opinions related to local elections.
Have you noticed how many more slick campaign mailers you have been getting? There's a noticeable change in the last few election cycles. I know that elections generally get more expensive over time, but I'm concerned that the increased use of conventional political consultants is making our local campaigns more expensive and less grassroots. This can't be good for promoting civic engagement, and might even lead to less honesty in campaigns. I could go on, but I'll just say that I'm not happy about the impact of some of these paid consultants on our local races.
From: Chapel Hill Herald; Saturday, October 30, 2004
The 2000 election was a scandal or, perhaps more accurately, a crime of historic proportions. According to investigative reporter Greg Palast, fully half of the rejected ballots that year, about a million in total, were cast by African Americans. This despite the fact that blacks comprise only 12 percent of the U.S. population.
While we may hope that this disenfranchisement does not recur, it is an unfortunate fact that barriers to voting remain prevalent in many areas that are home to minorities. According to Palast, few of tens of thousands of African-Americans who were improperly removed from voter rolls in 2000 have been returned to them.
For most of us, it is hard to reconcile ourselves to the fact that there are political actors in our nation who do not believe in the right to have one's vote counted. What could be more basic to American democracy than the right to vote?
I know a lot of you will be volunteering in various electoral capacities on Tuesday, we'll have an open thread for you to post your reports of what's going on around town. We'll also post any news updates we get from the local Board of Elections there. That thread will open along with the polling places at 6:30 am.
And after the polls close (7:30 pm) The Town of Carrboro has invited us to come watch the returns. As usual, Carrboro is the place to be!
Area residents are encouraged to come downtown to watch election returns starting at 7:30pm. Carrboro restaurants and bars will be offering various drink and food specials. As of press time participating restaurants and bars include the Orange County Social Club, Acme Food and Beverage, Tyler's, and The Spotted Dog. In addition to drink and food specials, these establishments will all provide TV coverage of election returns.
Talk about write-ins, endorsements, the OP voter guide, what-have-you...
What's wrong with the Indy's endorsements? Is a vote for Nader as good as a vote for Bush?
What do you think of one-stop early voting? Is it advancing democracy or messing up the process?
I am excited to release our first-ever Orange Politics Voter Guide! This is not intended to endorse any candidate or issue, although readers may feel free to post their own endorsements in the comments with the caveat that you may not refer to any other candidates that you are not endorsing (same rules as this primary thread).
A lot of this inforation is available from the Orange County Board of Elections or the N.C Board of Elections.
We tried to find candidate web sites when available, please contact us if you have more information. Also, we would like to add columns listing which endorsements each candidate has received, but we need volunteers to do the research... hint hint. Basically, this is a work in progress, so wait until closer to the election before you print it out for November 2.
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