Blogs

Here's a handy link that takes you to a virtual postcard with info on how to find out about Early Voting sites in your county, how you can still register to vote, where you vote on election day, how to view your sample ballot and more. I'd appreciate you passing the link on to others via Facebook, email, etc. Email me if you want the html code for this.

As a bonus, our graphic gives you a break from all that red, white and blue!

http://www.democracy-nc.org/voteearly2010.html

Joining the growing list of media outlets who wouldn't know an expert if he sat in their laps:

Chris Hayes, a legislative analyst for Civitas, said Parfitt's low name recognition because of having never run before could be one of the reasons for the difference - as could Dawkins' familiarity among voters from his time on the City Council and the fact that his father was mayor for six terms.

But there could be other factors that come into play, too, Hayes said. "Unaffiliated voters, who are currently divided in their choice of candidate," he said, "may play a crucial role in this race."

In one little blurb, Hayes has cast the Democrat as having no experience, and the Republican as having both experience and well-loved father/mayor.

Written by Sue Sturgis
Cross-posted from Facing South.

Black farmers gathered in a historic farming community in North Carolina over the weekend to draw attention to the continuing decline of black land ownership due to government policies -- including the ongoing failure by the Senate to fund a more than $1 billion race discrimination agreement.

We're turning up the heat on our GOTV here at Democracy North Carolina and we need your help with our virtual phone bank! We have phone lists of targeted voters (African-American senior citizens, college voters, etc.) who need a nudge to return to the polls in 2010 and we need your help phoning them with Early Voting and other information. Sign up on-line, we'll send you a list of about 40 names plus suggested scripts, and you can work from home or your office. And please help us spread the word by sending this opportunity to people you think might want to help! Thanks -- and Happy Voting in 2010.

Sign up on-line here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6601/signup_page/phonebankingvolunteer

I have a ton of things on the desk at the moment, and I don’t have the time to really run out this story before Election Day, but I want to bring to your attention something very strange that I found on the 2008 “Christine O’Donnell for Senate” MySpace page.

What it basically comes down to is that the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army are “Christine O’Donnell for Senate” MySpace friends, or that there are persons who have created United States Army and USMC MySpace pages that purport to be official that have “befriended” her candidacy. There’s also a Navy page that appears to emanate from a US Navy recruiting office in California on her ’08 campaign’s “friends” list.

At a minimum, all of this would seem to be a combination of inappropriate behavior and poor management of social media; at worst, you have activity that is “some kind of unlawful”, either on an administrative or civil level.

I’ll make this fast...but I’ll also make it interesting.
Follow along, and you’ll see what I mean.

According to my tally, it's Elaine Marsall ahead on endorsements. Does she have any others besides N&O, IndyWeek, Wilmington Star-News, Charlotte Observer? Does Burr have any besides W-S Journal and the Asheville C-T?

I want to run an article (probably on Tuesday) with all the endorsements I know about for Congressional candidates in Triangle, so far.

Martha Brock
Examiner.com/Elections 2010

Before You Trick or Treat This Year...
Why Not Trick or Vote?!
We’ve seen some truly scary things this election season, but now’s your chance to reach out to voters in the Triangle and urge them to head to the polls anyway.

From the Democracy North Carolina GOTV Team:
Join Trick or Vote and their partner Rock the Vote in a Triangle area canvass – and come dressed as your favorite Halloween character so you're ready to party afterward!
Where: UNC Student Union, Chapel Hill (Map: meet at the walkway between the Union and the Union Annex in The Pit area )
When: Friday, October 29th, 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM
What to Bring: Walking shoes, a water bottle and your costume!
For More Information: Contact Tracy Leatherberry at Tracy@rockthevote or (336) 312-5196.

From a telephone Interview with Michele Miller Houck, President of the North Carolina Women’s Political Caucus:

With Election Day coming in just over a week, Michele Miller Houck of Charlotte and I talked on Sunday. Houck has been working to rebuild the North Carolina Women’s Political Caucus (NCWPC ) as a state-wide bi-partisan group that supports pro-choice women for political office.

The Caucus has been focused on only a few Legislative races this year, but it also endorsed Secretary of State Elaine Marshall for the U. S. Senate. Marshall is challenging the Republican incumbent Senator Richard Burr of Winston-Salem. Marshall is also endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus.

And the NAACP is not happy with their choices:

A proposal by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to close eight urban schools, where less than 10 percent of the total enrollment is white, has sparked bitter debate and action by state and local NAACP leaders accusing CMS of racism.

But to some, it's the latest twist in a cycle of discrimination that dates back to Jim Crow schools, continued with urban renewal projects that razed black neighborhoods, and gathered new force when courts dismantled CMS' desegregation plan about 10 years ago.

I've spent the last few hours trying to work this thing backwards, so follow me if you're interested:

I see that there has been polling and research on public opinion of media coverage of the election this year.

"That half of voters essentially think journalists are not doing their jobs as impartial observers, I think, is a significant finding," {Darrell] West said.

This quote comes from a good article on the subject I came across on the Hill's blog tonight.

A majority of likely voters across 10 key congressional districts say the media have become more partisan in the past five years, according to a new poll from The Hill.

Subject: Teens training on GOTV today!

Training compose of taking a child/teen to the polls and showing them the process on how to vote, this will replace thousands of words of explaining why to vote; Hosea 22:6.

This is the time to train up our youth about the important of VOTING and getting (hands on experience) with GOTV on Saturday October 23rd and 30th. Some people are suggesting that we ask parents to work together with civic organizations to help with this important training events of GOTV. This is a necessary process to help give assistant and encourage people to vote early to continue the successes and accomplishments of the last 24 months with the current Presidential administration, also give support to those that are running campaigns that favor us in Johnston County. These are the rights and reasons why our fore-fathers sheared blood and died for us in the 50's and 60's. Let not move backward, but move forward!

Got a letter from the NC Democratic Party today. It was reminder to vote with a handy voter guide to take to the polls.

So far, so good.

However, in the first paragraph, the letter kindly thanks me for voting in 2008 (I'm a registered Democrat so they assume me voting helps them), but notes that I didn't vote in 2009 or the May 2010 primary.

Knowing this to be false -- since I haven't missed voting in ANY election since I turned 18 -- I checked my record on the State Board of Elections web site just to see if bad data was out there.

Sure enough, the SBOE records indicate that I've voted in every election for the past several years -- general, primary, 2nd primary, municipal. You name it, I've voted.

So why does the NCDP think I haven't voted in 2 years?

I don't know, but I do know new management is needed at party headquarters.

Candidate recruitment was abysmal this cycle, and campaign management doesn't seem much better.

Wise words from our Secretary of State:

“Prosperity belongs to all if we work for it,” Marshall said to the crowd. “We do not believe the budget should be balanced on the backs of the middle class. The millionaires need to pay their fair share.”

Women are entitled to equal pay for equal work, she said. “This is not a women’s issue; it’s a family issue,” Marshall said.

That's exactly right. Inequality in pay doesn't just impact the (female) earner, it puts her children at a disadvantage as well, if she's also a mom. And there's about 10 million single moms out there, with some 15 million kids they're raising. And only about 1 in 4 receive any type of government assistance.

As a species, human beings leave much to be desired. Not to say we haven't made some significant contributions, but that doesn't make us the sharpest knives in the drawer. For example, everybody knew who the real Clarence Thomas was during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Reporters knew. His colleagues knew. Congress knew. Everybody knew, including his ardent defenders. Yet we turned a blind eye. We allowed a liar and a pervert to be appointed to the highest court in the land. For life. Everybody knew it and we still we let it happen.

No matter how much that turns your stomach, we're letting something far worse happen right now. We're letting businesses buy our government. Art Pope. Fred Eschelman. Karl Rove. The US Chamber of Commerce. Foreign corporations. They are buying the United States of America one vote at a time, and they are doing it as we speak. It is every bit a coup. Everybody knows. And still we let it happen?

Are we sailing on a ship of fools?

Though many of the projects and foundations funded by Art Pope are upfront about their conservative bent, the North Carolina History Project (northcarolinahistory.org/) bills itself as "an edited, evolving, and free online encyclopedia of North Carolina that also includes commentaries, lesson plans, and a community calendar" and its website as "a special project of the John Locke Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank in Raleigh, North Carolina." However, an extensive study of their work reveals that the NCHP champions subjects that fit into a conservative, anti-feminist worldview while glossing over the bigoted legacy of conservative icons such as Jesse Helms.