Early voting: More of the same
The Guilford County Board of Elections met today and decided not to add another day to the early voting calendar.
This, despite an all-star group of local leader-types to support adding an extra day.
The line up included Rep. Alma Adams, Commissioner Carolyn Coleman, Board of Commissioners Chairman Kirk Perkins, Rev. Cardes Brown Jr., pastor of New Light Missionary Baptist Church and local NAACP leader, and Gregory Headen, pastor of Genesis Baptist Church, along with a couple attorneys as backup.
They wanted another day of Sunday voting to build on this past Sunday's big turnout.
But in the end, the board voted to keep things the same, citing the long-standing schedule and giving the elections staff some room to catch up on the work that voting brings.
So if you're looking to vote early, use this same ol' schedule, the one that's been posted since the summer.
Comments (2)
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THIS IS the change we need: the Guilford B.o.E. versus THAT particular "line up.....along with a couple attorneys as backup".
When I was growing up, my mother had to take time off from work to fetch me from school so that she could get a good spot in line at our precinct's polling place before the rain and/or sleet started.
Primary turn-out was low back then, so I generally suffered through these 2-4 hour lines with her only once every two years.
No one, including us kids, complained about the wait because EVERYONE standing there in the cold - on that ONE DAY, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November - understood that voting is a PRIVILEGE we enjoy because we have the great fortune of being Americans. We were all happy and proud to do it.
Next time any of your readers feel the need to whine about the inconvenience of voting, I want them to understand that they probably didn’t do nearly as much to earn that RIGHT as did the WWII vet wearing the VFW hat with the “Dukakis” pin on it who stood in front of my mom for three hours at the fire station on Old Oak Ridge Road at the end of the runway. And he kindly offered my “Bush-Quayle ’88” button-wearing mother his coat.
Selecting the most powerful person in the world SHOULD BE far more difficult than ordering the #3 combo at your local 24-7 fast-food joint.
Posted on October 22, 2008 3:40 AM
Maria -
The refrain from George Gilbert, the county's elections director, is that early voting is a privilege intended to ease the voting process, and that voting on Election Day is a right.
That's why, according to Gilbert, there are a just few early voting locations, compared to the 160+ polling places on Election Day.
By that thinking, early voting is intended to ease the crush of voters on Election Day and avoid those waits you remember as a schoolgirl.
Posted on October 22, 2008 9:50 AM