The newspaper will host candidates for Chapel Hill Mayor and Town Council, and Carrboro Mayor and Board of Aldermen in a Town Hall-style forum setting on Thursday, October 6th from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. on campus in Manning Hall 209.

Announcing OrangePolitics Volunteer Sprints!* We are looking for volunteers to help us build a better Election Guide. If you are interested in researching candidates and issues or building online tools to share election information, please consider helping out.

Some of the things we might work on include:

• Compiling information about each candidate possibly including: endorsements, campaign spending, candidate photos, and whatever else we think of
• Comparative charts and other analysis
• Dynamic maps (like this for example)
• Post-election analysis of donations, and results by precinct

If these sound interesting, or if you have a better idea, please sign up for the OP Volunteer list.

Kleinschmidt "outstanding leader for equal rights," ENC's Palmquist says.

Equality NC PAC announced today its endorsement of Mark Kleinschmidt for re-election to the Chapel Hill Town Council. The statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group cited his leadership on equal rights issues in making its choice.

The group is primarily active in state-level races, but makes endorsements in local races of statewide significance.

"Mark Kleinschmidt has proven himself as a leader who truly represents Chapel Hill's values of freedom, justice and equality," said Ian Palmquist, the group's Executive Director for Programs. "Mark is significant not only because he is one of four openly gay elected official in our state, but because of his outspoken and effective advocacy for equal rights."

Read the entire release.