Triangle voting guides

Sunday, 21 October, 2012 — civics

With the November election in just another couple of weeks, it’s past time for me to get ready for early voting. In my last post, I pointed out info regarding early voting and registration info. Hopefully you’re already registered. If not, you can register and vote at one stop voting in North Carolina until Nov. 3.

What about selecting candidates? On my ballot, I have 32 offices and one bond referendum to vote for. Twenty one of those offices are contested and of those, only three have a third-party (Libertarian) or unaffiliated candidate. Several judicial races are uncontested. The race for North Carolina attorney general is also uncontested. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, partly related to North Carolina’s ballot access policies.

Outside of the presidential races, I have a fair amount of research to do. I use a mix of candidate websites and voting guides.

Checking around today, here’s what I found that covers North Carolina broadly, the Triangle or Raleigh:

• UNC TV and North Carolina Center for Voter Education North Carolina Voter Guide
• The News & Observer’s Elections section has fact checking and staff-written candidate profiles
• Raleigh Public Record’s 2012 Fall Voter Guide
• The Independent Weekly’s 2012 Election Voting Guide and Endorsements
• There appear to be a multitude of conservative voter guides available. I haven’t looked at them and can’t speak for them.

My own approach is going to be breaking up my sample ballot into chunks and researching three or four races a day, instead of trying to get through everything at once.

Your vote

Tuesday, 9 October, 2012 — civics

On November 6, 2012, you need to vote. Not just for president, either.

In North Carolina, there are races for governor, lieutenant governor and other Council of State offices, state legislature, congress, judgeships, county commissioner, etc. The down ballot races get far less attention, but it’s more likely that your vote will matter more. Please take the time to get ready.

First, If you’re in North Carolina and you have not already registered, you can do so until Oct. 12. Starting Oct. 18, you can vote early. If you haven’t already registered, you can register and vote the same day. See the NC Board of Elections site for more. In Wake County, visit the county Board of Elections early voting site for more info.

Second, know how you’re going to vote before you go. Research. In the Triangle, the N&O has a voting guide prepared by the NC Center for Voter Education.

Third, know when and where you’re going to vote Nov. 6 or through early voting.

No excuses, check your schedule, make sure you can vote, then make sure you’re prepared to vote. It matters.