
{"id":7561,"date":"2009-10-22T04:29:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T12:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=7561"},"modified":"2009-10-22T04:29:46","modified_gmt":"2009-10-22T12:29:46","slug":"slow-start-to-early-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/10\/22\/slow-start-to-early-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow start to early voting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Voting got underway in Orange County, but just barely, with light turnout reported at all three early-voting polling spots.<\/p>\n<p>Polls opened last Thursday in Hillsborough and on Monday at Carrboro Town Hall and Morehead Planetarium.<\/p>\n<p>Orange County Board of Elections director Tracy Reams said operations at all three site were running smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We just need some more voters,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My people need some work to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The turnout was a far cry from the record-breaking crowds during the first week of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presidential race.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, only 384 voters had cast their ballots \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 31 in Hillsborough, 235 at the planetarium and 118 at Carrboro Town Hall.<\/p>\n<p>There were some indications that more pleasant weather might lead to a pick-up in the pace.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a nice day, and we needed to vote sooner or later, so we figured why not sooner?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Collan Kneale, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ventured to Carrboro Town Hall at lunchtime on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Also in line was Lucretia Kinny, who decided to beat whatever rush the local election might engender. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s convenient and I already know for whom I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to vote,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said when asked what got her down to the polling place.<\/p>\n<p>Although the ballot will remain the same, the start of voting Thursday coincided with a shake-up in the race for Chapel Hill mayor, with candidate Kevin Wolff telling the audience at Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s WCHL election forum at Chapel Hill Town Hall that he was dropping out of the race. Wolff did not endorse anyone in making his announcement.<\/p>\n<p>He had based his campaign in part on calling for council member Matt Czajkowski to drop out of the race, with the slogan \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keep Matt Where He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s At.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Wolff, who loaned himself $10,000 for his campaign, had reluctantly applied for public funding, but failed to qualify, according to an announcement last week by the State Board of Elections.<\/p>\n<p>The elections board, which is managing Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nascent public-financing program, also declared that council member Mark Kleinschmidt was eligible for $9,000 in additional emergency funding because Czajkowski\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fundraising had passed the $21,000 threshold. A special fundraising report filed last week by Czajkowski showed that he has raised $23,629.50. The mayor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s race is on track to be the most expensive in town history.<\/p>\n<p>Endorsements announced last week:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Orange-Chatham Sierra Club:<br \/>\nChapel Hill Mayor \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Mark Kleinschmidt; Chapel Hill Town Council \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Laurin Easthom, Ed Harrison, Jim Merritt and Penny Rich; Carrboro Mayor \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Mark Chilton; Carrboro Board of Aldermen \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Jacquie Gist, Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell and Sammy Slade; Hillsborough Mayor \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Tom Stevens; Hillsborough Town Council \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Frances Dancy and Michael Gering.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Hank Anderson\/ Bill Thorpe Breakfast Club:<br \/>\nChapel Hill Mayor \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Mark Kleinschmidt; Chapel Hill Town Council \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Laurin Easthom, Ed Harrison, Jim Merritt and Will Raymond; Carrboro Mayor \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Mark Chilton; Carrboro Board of Aldermen \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Jacquie Gist, Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell and Sammy Slade; Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Michelle (Shell) Brownstein, J.M. (Joe) Green and Gregory McElveen.<\/p>\n<p><em>Beth Mechum contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer Voting got underway in Orange County, but just barely, with light turnout reported at all three early-voting polling spots. Polls opened last Thursday in Hillsborough and on Monday at Carrboro Town Hall and Morehead Planetarium. Orange County Board of Elections director Tracy Reams said operations at all three site were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7562,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7561\/revisions\/7562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}