The posts in this category discuss our core issues.
Two websites provide background and instructions, including a video, about the Instant Runoff Voting method being used this year in three local Superior Court races and one statewide Court of Appeals election. The Court of Appeals race, which is the nation’s first use of IRV in a statewide general election, has a certain historical fascination. [...]
The New York Times blows a hole in the myth that the US Chamber of Commerce represents hundreds of thousands of Main Street businesses across America; in fact, only a handful of big corporations are bankrolling the lobby group and its gigantic electioneering operation. NYT researchers pierced the secrecy around the Chamber’s donors, at least [...]
A hat tip to Art Pope’s Civitas Institute for providing two practical, fairly objective services without overt ideological interpretation (no doubt they’re offered this year because the GOP is promoting Early Voting, but anyone can use these tools). One service tracks the use of absentee voting; caution: counts of mail-in ballots and in-person ballots cast [...]
Talk about a conspiracy. The New York Times and Think Progress provide the details of an ongoing series of twice-yearly, four-day strategy sessions held by a Who’s Who of hard-line “free enterprise” champions, billionaire businessmen, front-group consultants, and Glenn Beck provocateurs – all hosted by the super-secretive Koch brothers. The end of the posting on [...]
The Washington Post reports today that a study of felony disenfranchisement laws has found that 800,000 former felons have returned to the voter rolls in the past decade thanks to a push by criminal justice advocates and civil rights groups -- including Democracy North Carolina -- to rewrite state laws and eliminate various voting barriers [...]
Who makes up the largest group of the early-early voters this year? In 2008, black Democratic women were the largest demographic group during the first 3 days (and all 17 days) of the early voting period. Their enthusiasm and organizing paved the way for the Obama victory. By sharp contrast, white Republican men are the [...]
(Posting delayed due to dead computer.) With Early Voting off to a roaring start, here’s a link to an all-purpose resource for North Carolina elections that we encourage others to post on their sites: http://www.NCElectionConnection.com/. It connects you to your Early Voting sites, a view of your sample ballot, the location of your precinct polling place on [...]
Ninety-seven cents of every dollar the Civitas Institute spends comes from Art Pope via the Pope Foundation, according to a new report by Facing South. So does four dollars out of every five that John Hood and the John Locke Foundation spend to promote the Art Pope brand of me-first, libertarian conservatism. This is the [...]
The Instant Runoff Voting method will be used in three Superior Court races this year -- and in a 13-candidate tussle for a seat on the NC Court of Appeals. Ironically, there’s more attention on the IRV process than on these little-known candidates. Two recent pieces include this op-ed piece by Damon Circosta of the [...]
The NC Voters from Clean Elections coalition released its 2010 scorecard that evaluates the support of state legislators for “voter-owned” public financing and related campaign reform measures. NCVCE points out that more legislators received perfect scores in 2010 than in previous reports. Meanwhile, three more judicial candidates have demonstrated enough public support to qualify for [...]