voting rights
After reading about changes made in Watauga County, I was prompted to write a letter to the Orange County Board of Elections after several constituents voiced concerns about decision making in other counties. Below is that letter.
Dear Members of the Orange County Board of Elections,
I am
writing in response to concerns voiced to me by constituents in the
Orange County community after actions taken by the Watauga County Board
of Elections and the Pasquotank County Board of Elections.
This
week the Watauga County Board of Elections took action, which
consolidated three precincts into one large precinct numbering nearly
10,000 voters and where the polling place has only 35 parking spaces.
They then took action to reduce early voting to four days and eliminated
early voting at the Appalachian State University campus. All of these
actions were made in secret and not shared with the Democratic member of
the Board, yet the Watauga County GOP chairwoman was fully aware of the
coming actions. To add insult to injury, the Board did not allow verbal
comment from the public, instead opting for written comment only.
Dear Govenor McCrory:
Please pubically come out against Bill 589. And to veto the Bill. The bill takes away constitutional rights of people with disabilities, like me.
I have CP, and I'm in an electric wheelchair, and the only way I can vote is to vote early, and once in awhile I have to vote provisionally. I have voted provisionally twice, because it is too hard to get to my precinct. The bill takes away these options. And, with the bill, my staff can't come with me anymore and get paid. And it makes it harder for people who aren't their own guardians to vote. This is against the ADA reasonable accomodations.
You all should think twice about this. BEFORE passing it.
From,
Ellen Perry
It’s about to get a lot harder to vote in Orange County, at least for some of us.
The Republican majority in the General Assembly clearly feels that the racist, anti-woman, anti-urban, and very anti-liberal redistricting which took place last year didn’t do enough to solidify their entrenched majority. Now they’re hard at work systematically disenfranchising people who are unlikely to vote for them. Stringent voter identification requirements, shortened early voting, and other impediments to voting have been proposed in the General Assembly and are all likely to pass.
But of particular note to us in Orange County is the aptly-numbered Senate Bill 666. The most significant change in SB 666 isn’t in chapter 163 which governs elections; rather, it’s a change to the tax code:
Thousands of people took to the streets today in North Carolina’s capital city. HK on J (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) is an annual civil rights and progressive issue-based march in Raleigh, NC. The 6th annual march happened yesterday morning. It was really empowering to see so many people there supporting equality, voting rights, and social justice. And it was great to see Rep. Miller marching too.
9:00 am Registration -- visitors are free, membership is $10, pre-order lunch
9:30 am Welcome and Introductions
9:40 am Workshop/Teach-in by Pittsboro Mayor Randy Voller:
“How to Elect Progressive Candidates from the Grassroots Up”
11:40 am short break
11:45 am Move to Amend: Challenging the Myth of Corporate Personhood
presentation and vote on resolution facilitated by Sally Goerner, MTA Triangle
12:15 pm Lunch and informal Discussion
1:00 pm The future of voter-owned elections, transparency and accountability after Citizens United
- Jake Gellar-Goad from Democracy NC
1:30 pm Mobilizing for Campaigns without candidates:
Defeating the marriage discrimination amendment - Sam Parker from Protect NC Families
Protecting voter rights and ballot access for all -- Jake Gellar-Goad from Democracy NC
Creating an independent redistricting commission -- Jesse Goslen, Wake Progressive Democrats
2:30 pm break
2:40 pm The future of progressive politics in a rapidly changing world - roundtable discussion
4:30 pm adjourn
Date:
Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 9:30am to 4:30pm
Location:
Orange County Campus of Durham Tech, Room 201; 525 College Park Road, Hillsborough
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