2
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2005
One stop voting
Orange County Board
of Elections office
110 E. King St.
Hillsborough, N.C.
Oct. 20 to Nov. 5
M-F, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturdays | Oct. 22,
Oct. 2 9 and Nov. 5
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Important dates
Today
Voting begins
in Carrboro and
at Morehead
Planetarium
9 a.m.-4 p.m., M-F,
9 a.m.-l p.m., Sat.
Nov. 1
Last day to
request absentee
ballots by mail
Early voting is more convenient
Starting today,
every site open
BY TED STRONG
CITY EDITOR
In much of America, there are
only two ways to vote: Show up on
Election Day and pull the levers,
or apply to the bureaucracy and
mail in an absentee ballot.
Orange County is different.
Here, the concerned citi
zen has 15 days, in addition to
Election Day, in which to vote at
one stop voting locations scat
tered throughout the county.
Voters can cast their ballots
anytime until Nov. 5, Monday
through Saturday, in Hillsborough,
Carrboro or Chapel Hill.
The polls were packed for early
voting last year, with major stu
dent registration efforts and a
hotly contested presidential elec
tion on the line.
But the percentage of early vot
ers drops in election “off” years,
said Carolyn Thomas, director of
the county board of elections.
Thomas said the rationale
behind the program, which has
been in the area for seven or eight
Morehead Planetarium
& Science Center
250 E. Franklin St.
Chapel Hill, NC
Oct. 24 to Nov. 5
M-F, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturdays | Oct. 29
and Nov. 5
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Nov. 7
Absentee ballots must
be at the Orange
County Board of
Elections office by 5
p.m., delivered either
by mail or by hand
years, is simple.
“It’s for their convenience,
basically, if they don’t have a real
flexible time, where they can vote
on one particular day,” she said.
And while Thomas said that
early voting isn’t as hot in munic
ipal elections as it is in national
ones, the trend is clear, she said.
The more people know about
early voting, the more people
want to do it.
The voting experience itself is
the same, save for one small dif
ference voters are asked to give
their name and address.
This is to ensure that voters
don’t change their mind and try
to vote again, something elec
tions officials tend to frown on.
When it comes to tallying the
votes, everything comes in at
once anyway, with early-cast bal
lots getting counted the same day
as Election Day votes.
And while early voting is sim
ple, Thomas said, there is one
trick of which prospective voters
ought to be aware.
That’s the art of avoiding pro
crastination.
“Usually, there’s a line the
last day, and we’re there for two
weeks,” Thomas said.
Voters Guide
Carrboro
Town Hall
301 W. Main St.
Carbrboro, NC
Oct. 24 to Nov. 5
M-F, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturdays | Oct. 29
and Nov. 5
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Nov. 8
Election
Day
“Its for their
convenience ...if
they don’t have a
real flexible time,
where they can
vote on one... day.”
CAROLYN THOMAS, DIRECTOR
Thomas added that anyone in
line by the close of voting hours
will be allowed to vote, but noted
that last year, wait times for such
students ranged up to two hours,
when 48 hours before there had
been no line.
In Hillsborough, early voting
takes place at the heart of the
electoral universe, the Orange
County Board of Elections office,
at 110 East King St.
For the those west of campus,
Carrboro Town Hall will feature
one-stop voting.
The closest location to campus is
actually on campus. The Morehead
Planitarium and Science Center
will offer early voting on the same
schedule as Carrboro Town Hall,
and on the same times and dates.
Vote this year:
These elections
affect your lives
Why vote in town elections?
With the registration season
having come to a close, I’m no
longer trying to find ways to
convince people to move their
registration to Orange County.
My focus now is on convinc
ing many of the 10,090 voters
aged 18-24 who voted in the
2004 national election to come
show their interest in local
affairs.
Many students feel that the
campus impacts their lives
more than the great towns sur
rounding it. While this may
be true for some students, it
doesn’t justify forfeiting your
opportunity to make your life
yet better.
Here’s a sampling of how
town policies affect your life:
All of those empty build
ings on Franklin and Columbia
streets could be great places to
shop. Instead, they’re eyesores,
and they encourage students to
visit the Streets at Southpoint,
further diminishing sales of
the remaining non-restaurant
storefronts downtown.
I’ve heard some people com
plain that the poor lighting on
Rosemary Street makes them
scared of being raped or sexu
ally assaulted.
If brought to the Town
Council’s attention, this will
almost certainly be improved.
Proposals have been consid
ered over the course of the last
two years that would limit the
number of unrelated members
of a house further from four
to two.
This is a direct effort to curb
students’ ability to live in their
own community.
If you’ve visited your friends
at Chapel Ridge, you may have
noticed there’s no parking. This
is due to town restrictions on
parking spaces.
Parking restrictions extend
throughout the town, in an
effort to convince everyone to
use public transit, yet students
seem to be disproportionately
affected by these laws.
Almost every candidate has
proactive ideas to improve the
transit system which students
from both towns need to get to
their classes every day. These
Ofyp laily ®ar Uteri
JEREMY SPIVEY
VOTECAROLINA PRESIDENT
range from increasing route
times to using buses of different
sizes.
This election may affect your
ability to walk home safely at
night. It may improve or dimin
ish your ability to get to places
around town, and, in the worst
case scenario, it might even
make living off-campus a dis
tant, unaffordable dream.
In order to gain influence
in the town here’s what you
need to do: Walk to Morehead
Planetarium, on Franklin
Street, one day from Oct. 24
through Nov. 5. (The full sched
ule is on the next page).
Stand in line, which likely
will be short. If you’ve changed
dorms, tell the election workers.
Finally, take 10 minutes to
read about each of the candi
dates you’ll be considering, also
provided in this guide, and cast
your vote. We’ve even included a
sample ballot on page 11, which
you should be able to fill out,
take into the polling place with
you, and transfer the informa
tion to an official ballot.
Be sure to thank the election
volunteers for making early vot
ing available to all of us.
In 2003,329 students voted
in Chapel Hill, and less than
100 voted in Carrboro.
These numbers make it quite
difficult for prospective council
and board of alderman members
to run on a “pro-student” plat
form, especially in those situa
tions when non-students seem to
be at odds with students.
With your help, we can raise
these numbers to a respectable
percentage of the student popu
lation, and begin the process of
becoming an active, critical vot
ing constituency in Chapel Hill
and Carrboro.
Contact Jeremy Spivey
atjkspivey@email.unc.edu.