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Volume41,Number39 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, June 11, 2015
r VOTER ID LAW
Photo by Erin Mizelle for the Winston-Salem Chronicle.
The NC State Board of Elections public comments hearing drew in a large crowd of interested parties prepared to speak on behalf of the 2013 Voter Information
Verification Act (SI,. 2013-381) on Tuesday, June 9, at the Forsyth County Government Center in Downtown Winston-Salem. The Voter Information Verification
Act (SJL. 2013-381), passed in 2013 by the NC General Assembly, requires photo identification for in-person voting starting in 2016.
ID law hearing draws lame crowd
State elections board gets
earful from public
BY TORI P1TTMAN
FOR THE CHRONICLE
On Tuesday, June 9, citizens of Forsyth County gath*
;red at the multipurpose room of the Forsyth County
Government Center on Chestnut Street to voice their opin
ions about the new N.C. voter ID law.
On Aug. 12,2013, Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law that
requires citizens of North Carolina to have valid photo
identification in order to vote. This law will take effect on
Jan. 1,2016, during the year of the presidential election.
The room was filled with people ? college students,
middle-aged and senior citizens ? that were present to lis
ten or speak.
Public Information Officer John, Lawson, Jennifer
Fqullywf and Greg Michalek, who are with Voter
Outreach, were seated in front of the crowd, taking notes
and listening.
Three pages of citizens signed up to have their two
minute time slot to speak. Those who signed up either had
a speech written or were verbally expressing their opin
ions and concerns.
The biggest issue mentioned multiple times were col
lege IDs would no longer be valid in the new year.
"A lot of college students don't have the money to pur
chase an ID," said Isaiah Fletcher, chairman of the Forsyth
County Young Democrats. "It makes no sense-why I can't
use a state-funded ID from a public university."
Fletcher is also a student at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro who strongly expressed how most
students are in debt and can't afford to get a photo ID
when they have easy access to use their college IDs that's
already a part of their funding to an accredited college or
See ID Law on A2
NATIONAL BLACK THEATER FESTIVAL
Photos by Erin Mizelle for the Winston
Salem Chronicle.
At right, Dasia Amos, of
The POINTE! Studio of
Dance, performed a seg
ment from the dance
version of "Annie" for
the National Black ' . V
Theatre Festival pressy '
conference at the
Embassy Suites Hotel In
downtown Winston* ?,*
Salem on Monday,
June 8.
Brewington
N.C. Black Rep unites
with W-S to provide
entertainment for teens
' at theater festival
BY TEVlN STINSON
thechrqnicLe
The phrase "Put on your purple and black, because the
National Black Theatre Festival.is back!" continued to
echo through the halls of the Embassy Suites in downtown
Winston-Salem, on Monday June 8.
To build momentum for this year's 14th bi-annual fes
See NBTF on A2
vO
jSi
'That's a long walk'
?*
At final WSTA meeting, new bus routes displease many
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
The final comment
meeting on the new pro
posed Winston-Salem
Transit Authority bus
routes held at the Clark
Campbell Transportation
Center was filled with pas
sengers asking about which
of the new routes will serve
them.
Some didn't care for
the answer.
"That's a long walk,"
said one woman who will
have to walk further to get
to the closest proposed bus
route.
"That's three miles!"
another woman exclaimed
in reaction to the distance
from her home to the pro
posed route. She said she
currently walks at least two
miles to get to her current
route.
WSTA Director Art
Barnes went over each of
the 26 new proposed routes
with about 40 attendees
who were present at the
beginning of the final com
ment session this week. He
then took questions, as he
and WSTA staff tried to
help passengers figure out
which of the proposed
routes they need to take to
get where they're going.
He urged attendees to put
their comments in writing
so the WSTA can sde what
changes need to be made
on the new routes.
"This process is far
from over," he said, while
assuring attendees that they
will have ample notice
when the finalized routes
go into effect.
It was the last out of 21
comment meetings held by
WSTA. The new proposed
routes were created using
passenger surveys, passen
ger counter data and look
ing at which destinations
generate the most passen
gers. The new routes would
operate
under
the cur
r e n t
WSTA
budget
with a
similar
amount
of miles
and
man
hours
as the current routes. The
routes are designed to be
shorter, with most being 30
minutes long, and are
designed to be more direct
ways to get to popular des
tinations.
This is the first over
haul of routes in WSTA
history and radically
changes the shape of routes
that have been traveled for
decades. As a result, some
passengers who are used to
a bus coming close to their
homes are going to be
walking more to get to their
routes.
Barnes
"We know that people
will be inconvenienced and
convinced no matter what
we do in the end," he said.
"There are people who will
be happy and there are peo
ple who won't be happy.
It's not going to be a per
fect system that services
everyone because we're
limited to our current
resources, the number of
hours or miles that we
operate now."
Carolyn Wright was
among the attendees. The
68-year-old has no car or
driver's license and has
used the bus to get around
her whole life. She said bus
service is vital for both her
and her daughter, Latonya.
to get where they need to
go, especially to their jobs.
She works as an usher for
the University of North
Carolina School of the
Arts, a job that takes her
either to the college's cam
pus or to the downtown
Stevens Center.
Wright lives on West
14th Street. She currently
has convenient Saturday
service and has to walk to
Cherry Street for a Sunday
bus. The new routes change
that and she'll need to cross
a busy University Parkway
to catch the weekend bus.
She said she hoped the
routes stayed the same.
"I think they should
leave the routes just as they
are and not change any
See WSTA on A2
I . I
assured!
storage
of Winston-Salem, LLC