Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread for Saturday October 11th. We try to get together every weekend to share with everyone what we're all up to in Western North Carolina and beyond. We hope this group serves to invigorate 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 we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope this community can help leverage our orange passion for progressive politics to elect more and better Democrats.
Asheville and all of Western North Carolina are wonderful places to visit. We have a powerful progressive presence, both cultural and political, and for the most part everyone is really nice. And the views are breathtaking. If you've never been here, we promise you'll love it.
Drop over the fold for a place to talk about stuff.
Randall got called at the last minute for work and asked me to post an open thread. So, since it's already late, I'll just write a few comments here and let you fill in the rest in the comments.
I voted on Thursday, the first day of early voting here in North Carolina. I like to vote at the West Asheville library, so I headed there after my first going-to-town chore was finished. There was a short but steady line, normally a good turn out for early voting; but with the number of early voting days cut significantly by the legislature, you can't really compare to previous years. But it was a beautiful day for voting here in Asheville, and I had my cheat sheet with me; and I got all the answers on the ballot correct!
In yesterday's Daily Kos Elections Live Digest, Taniel reported the following:
In-person early voting started Thursday in North Carolina, and 118,000 voters took advantage on the first day. 51 percent of them were registered Democrats, while 29 percent of them were registered Republicans.
While Democrats have long enjoyed an edge in North Carolina's in-person early voting, their advantage this year is substantially greater than it was four years ago.
Unfortunately it is hard to compare these numbers to past cycles because state Republicans cut the early voting period by half, making it hard to compare these numbers to what they were at equivalent points of 2010 or 2012. But Democrats should also be satisfied that it took four days for as many North Carolinians to vote during the last midterms. Kay Hagan needs a strong turnout operation to win re-election, and this first wave of statistics suggests Democrats are getting their voters to the polls. Can they keep up this pace?
So, it looks like we're off to a good start. If you can, vote as early as possible; and encourage others to do the same. After today, there are just five and a half early voting days left.
If you need help with the "non-partisan" races (mainly judges), see last week's diary and check your local county Democratic Party website.
Happy voting! And enjoy this beautiful day in Western North Carolina!