Carrboro was notified yesterday that their Town Hall would not be used as a one-stop early voting site in May. Apparently, the Orange County Board of Elections has decided to only have two one-stop locations for this year's primary: Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, and the Board's own office in Hillsborough. The e-mail below indicates that there will still be an early voting site in Carrboro for the Novemeber general election, but doesn't offer any explanation for the primary change.

Each election, I am awed and inspired by those who have the courage and the stamina to run for office. Regardless of who we support, we should all be thankful for those who step up and put themselves on the line for the sake of their community.

Good luck to all the candidates, and thank you!

From the Orange County Board of Elections :

2009 Municipal and

Chapel Hill/Carrboro School Board

Election Schedule and

Candidate Filing Information

 

Election Day is November 3rd

In observance of Independence Day, the Board of Elections office will be closed

Friday, July 3rd.

 

Via e-mail announcement:

November 3rd is SUPER MONDAY! The ArtsCenter will host a mock election open to area youth AGES 5-11. Voting booths will be set up at The ArtsCenter on Super Monday where children in the Orange and surrounding counties can cast their vote for the offices of President, Vice President, US Senate, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor. Results will be made available in The Carrboro Citizen. Don't miss out on this special opportunity for your young person to participate in this historic election! Visit www.artscenterlive.org or call Shirlette at 919.929.2787 ext. 209 for more information.

Early voting starts today!  Here's a handy list of locations and hours via the Chapel Hill Herald:

I just got a robocall from a group calling itself "Citizens for a better Orange County" that opposes the Transfer Tax. It calls the tax the "Home Tax," which is clearly wrong on two levels. Firstly, the proposed tax is on all land sales, and secondly it is an attempt to falsely personalize this tax for local homeowners. Oh, and it fails to mention an important detail: the tax rate would be 0.4%. That's right: four tenths of a percent. That's one thousand dollars on a $250k hypothetical home. Sounds like too much money? Well, what are the alternatives? If this is defeated, the only two alternatives that have been seriously discussed are a sales tax (the most regressive tax possible) and a property tax increase. A property tax increase would be a home tax. Everything about the robocall was misleading and dishonest.

So you’ve got Barack and Hillary all figured out, but what else is on the ballot?

Yes, it’s my periodic profile of the lesser known races on the ballot this May. I will be partisan and leave it to some other writer to profile the Republican Primaries (there are some). And I am skipping over the US President, NC Governor and US Senate races, presuming that you can find some good info on those somewhere else. I am also skipping the Orange School Board and the District 2 Commissioner races because I don't live in either of those districts and have not really followed those races.

I voted at the Planetarium (2d floor this time) at about 12:30 pm and I was voter 235. There were 12-15 people waiting in line and another 8 to 10 completing their ballots. I saw two people who were registering. Best of all --- most of the voters that I saw fit the college-age demographic!

I don't think I've ever seen this many folks on the first half day! Also, there was plenty of excitement outside with the various campaigns represented. The Obama group had lots of folks working and I saw Kevin Wolff (R) out there campaigning for his wife (D)!

From OrangeDems.org:

Tuesday, April 29th - 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm – “Greet, Meet, Eat, and Learn,” sponsored by 6 Hillsborough precincts. Location: Kelsey's Occoneechee Steak House, 378 S. Churton, in Hillsborough. Various topics for discussion include: Voting information (ballots, who can vote, age limits, etc.); informal meeting candidates; who can vote in which primary; voting for county commissioners; information on the transfer tax.