UNC

Welcome back students, and welcome back Daily Tar Heel. Today's city desk is jam-packed with updates about Carolina North, the Bolin Creek Greenway extension, the Town of Chapel Hill's wifi pilot and staffing issues, the location of early-voting sites, and Katrina Ryan's new restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill.

Wait, what?

A new bakery and gelato shop will create a sweet spot in downtown Chapel Hill where Julian's clothing store once stood.

The shop, called Sugarland, might open for the Oct. 6 football game against Miami, owner Katrina Ryan said.

Ryan is the pastry chef at La Residence and also a candidate for a spot on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

The Orange County Board of Elections will be deciding on Tuesday, August 7th on whether to move the one-stop early voting site from UNC's campus to the Seymour Senior Center off Homestead Road.

We have the following objections to the proposed move:

1. The Seymour Senior Center creates a significant impediment to voting for students, faculty, staff and the many community members that live/work in and around downtown.
2. Moving the site away from campus will adversely impact student engagement in the upcoming election.
3. With the passage of the same-day voter registration bill, more students are likely to vote this fall. Moving the site will hurt these efforts.
4. If we want to encourage students to take an interest or an active role in their community, we should not making voting inaccessible to many who cannot make it to the Seymour Center.
5. Many faculty and staff that work on or near campus benefit from having a central voting site on campus.
6. A better location can be found that will benefit both students and residents of Chapel Hill.

Many members of the Chapel Hill community have been working for years to increase voting awareness and participation among students. All that effort might be for naught if the Orange County Board of Elections decides to move the one-stop early voting site to the new Robert and Pearl Seymour Senior Center on Homestead Road. According to the News & Observer, Morehead Planetarium will be under construction and will not be able to host the voting site.

The news of the potential relocation of the voting site to the Senior Center, a location that is not within walking distance for students, is especially disheartening after the recent passage of the same-day voter registration bill, which many believe will help increase voter turnout among students. If we want to encourage students to take an interest or an active role in their community, we should not relocate polls to a center that is out of reach for most students.