Good morning!
This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread where we try to get together every Saturday morning around eleven, and then drift in and out throughout the day. We hope this group serves to reinvigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who these people are that we stand with, work with, and share with in the political process. We hope, through this community, that we can do a better job of leveraging our orange passion for progressive politics to help elect more and better Democrats.
If you would like to host a weekly open thread, please let us know.
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Election day is May 6, just three and half weeks away, for the primary in North Carolina. Early voting begins April 24, less than two weeks. Mark your calendar.
Early voting locations, dates, and times for Buncombe County are here.
Sample ballots for Buncombe County are here.
The North Carolina voter lookup search tool is here. You can find the sample ballot for your specific precinct here as well as your election day voting location and other useful information.
Elections are of course a big part of what Daily Kos is about. And it has become increasingly more apparent, especially here in North Carolina, that local elections are important. We'll be voting not only for Senate (Kay Hagan) and House Congressional candidates, but for Democratic candidates for local offices as well. In my precinct there are primaries for District Attorney and County Clerk, and there are non-partisan races for Supreme Court Justice and District Court Judge.
But we'll also be voting to show our concern about and engagement with what's happening in North Carolina. A big turnout of Democratic voters sends a message.
For instance, the amount of money Kay Hagan is able to raise, the amount of national support she gets, the momentum she has, the number of volunteers that sign up, etc, can depend significantly on the number of votes she gets on May 6. And Hagan's race for re-election to the Senate may be the closest in the country. Our turnout on May 6 will have an effect on who controls the Senate in 2015. It's that important.
So please pass along this information to every left-leaning person you know; encourage them to vote in the primary. Encourage them to vote early.
Do your research. Print the sample ballot for your precinct, and know ahead of time who you're going to vote for, and why. And then pass that information along to others.
The Democratic party in North Carolina failed us in 2010. County Democratic parties had become rather static and were unprepared to compete at the level necessary that year. Since then, there have been efforts to bring about change at the county and state levels of the Democratic party; and these efforts can show up on primary ballots. There can be significant differences in the Democrats running in the primaries for local offices. So it is important to do your research and to vote in the primary for every race on the ballot.
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As mentioned last week, I'll be out of town and off-line this week and unable to publish the weekly open thread next Saturday. If you would like to take that date for me, kosmail me. If I don't hear from anybody, I'll try to write something later this afternoon.
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Our fifth quarterly DKos Asheville Meetup is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd, at 1:00. We'll once again be back at the Bywater on the French Broad River in Asheville. If you plan to attend, or if you're thinking about it, send a kosmail to Randy, randallt, and he'll put you on the list in the Connect*Unite*Act community diaries. We currently have eleven folks signed up plus two maybe's.
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And as a reminder, we now have a google group for DKos Asheville, setup for the purpose of making it easier for us to send messages to group members. We'll use it to send reminders of the Saturday open threads, meetups, voter registration events, etc. If you would like to be added to the google group, kosmail me an email address and I will send you an invite. Note, this is a private group and your email address will not be public. Remember to check your email for the google invite.
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Enjoy your day!
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