Elections
News and opinions related to local elections.
What does this election truly tell us in Carrboro/Chapel Hill and what do folks think is going to happen first in the Chapel Hill Council and Board of Alderfolk?
...the people of Orange County! Sorry for the cheese, it's been a good night.
So here's your quick-and-dirty results, for much much more info check the Board of Elections site (which was a huge flop on election night, but is back up now).
CHAPEL HILL:
Town Council: Sally Greene, Bill Strom, Cam Hill, Jim Ward
Mayor: Kevin Foy
Bonds: Yes on all 5
CARRBORO:
Board of Aldermen: Mark Chilton, Joal Broun, Alex Zaffron
Mayor: Mike Nelson
Bond: Yes
SCHOOL BOARD: Elizabeth Carter, Ed Sechrest, Michael Kelley, Gloria Faley
Enfranchisement and its dissing is an interesting problem. Consult the Federalist Papers and you will learn that the Founding Fathers were concerned about the "tyranny of the majority" under a pure democracy which might lord it over (or disenfranchise) a minority that nonetheless had the vote. Of course, the minority they were concerned with were the wealthy people who owned the country ("The people who own the country ought to govern it"--Hamilton). Today, we see that they crafted the system very well as 215 years later the wealthy remain firmly in charge.
The situation in Carrboro could be very similar to that feared by the Federalists in terms of the nature of the majority and who it is tyrannizing over.
I just voted at Hargraves and then walked down Franklin Street from the Post Office to the Carrboro town line shortly after lunchtime. I didn't see a single person with an "I Voted" sticker. I did have a number of people speak to me because of my sticker: a few friends asked who to vote for, one woman in a minivan asked me for directions to her pollsite, and I was interviewed for WCHL's "On The Street" program. (Listen for that on 1360AM tomorrow at 7:39am, 12:39pm, 4:39pm, or 5:39pm.)
The papers all say they expect low turnout. I don't get why they think it would be lower this year than others. If anything, I would think Big Merger Madness (thanks Jay) and the deluge of Town Council candidates would bring more voters out this year. The poll workers said I was voter number 78 so far. According to the Board of Elections, there are 1,479 in my precinct (Northside) - so they may be right. Time will tell...
Polls are open from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm today. Here are some links to resources at the Orange County Board of Elections.
It's good to see the Board of Elections has partially gotten their website together. In the past, the process of getting the returns was clumsy at best. Now, presumably, you can go to this page and watch things happen after the polls close.
Find your precinct. (That page isn't nearly as helpful as it should be.)
This is neat, they also have voter registration statistics for each precinct. That should make post-election analysis even more fun.
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