Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville Open Thread for Saturday, November 5th, 2022.
We offer this space every weekend to give readers a variety of links to local and regional news of interest, and open the floor for comment and discussion. Wishing all a good day from beautiful Western North Carolina.
“Daily Kos fights for a progressive America by empowering its community and allies with information and tools to directly impact the political process.”
Please jump the fold for links to election resources. Today’s election related stories from the two primary traditional media sources, WLOS and Citizen-Times, were hard to come by. As is common, the region’s arts and entertainment weekly, Mountain Express, is far more engaged.
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Polling Places in Asheville, North Carolina
Polls and Polling Times for Asheville NC: 6:30 am to 7:30 pm
Note: Polling place locations and times are subject to change, please check for the latest polling places at the North Carolina elections site: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/pplkup/
Mountain Express, Staff, 10/19/2022
Western North Carolina voters have many choices to make this fall. From the U.S. Senate down to the Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors, 2022’s midterm elections feature contested races at nearly all levels of government. Buncombe County residents will have the additional responsibility of deciding on two bond referendums that could see county government borrow $70 million for land conservation and affordable housing initiatives.
It’s a lot to unpack. That’s why Mountain Xpress is presenting information about every contested local race to represent Buncombe County residents. Along with the full online version here, you can find a print version in two parts, being published on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26. The first covers Asheville city government races, as well as contests for the local school boards; the second covers Buncombe County races, the N.C. General Assembly and U.S. House District 11.
Early in-person voting begins Thursday, Oct. 20, and will continue through Saturday, Nov. 5. The Buncombe County Board of Elections has more information about when and where to vote.
Absentee ballots to vote by mail may be requested through Tuesday, Nov. 1. Polls are open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8. Xpress has also compiled a list of voting FAQs to answer questions about the process and timeline.
Responses from candidates for each contested general election race are available at the pages linked below:
Mountain Express, Brooke Randle, 11/4/2022
Every election Corinne Duncan has worked since joining Buncombe County Election Services in 2015, she says, has felt more intense than the one before. Ever more people are voting, requesting information from the office she now directs and scrutinizing the electoral process.
And an increasing number of citizens, Duncan continues, want to take an active part in that process by serving as poll observers. As their name implies, poll observers work inside polling locations and are responsible for watching voters and election workers as citizens cast their ballots. They take notes of any irregularities, such as a location running out of ballots or a voting machine malfunctioning; they may also ask procedural questions of election officials and report concerns to the chief judge.
The role has traditionally been a low-key check on election officials to make sure voting runs smoothly. But as allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election — the vast majority of which have been disproven — continue to reverberate among some voters, several conservative activist groups are recruiting and training poll observers in the name of “election integrity,”
Mountain Express, Chris Joyell-Contributor, 11/2/2022
A colleague of mine recently closed on his first house. After years of anxiously scanning listings in Asheville and Buncombe County, he realized that if he were ever to become a homeowner, it would have to happen in another county — in this case, Haywood County.
Likewise, another colleague recently graduated college and began working at MountainTrue last year. She, too, has been frustrated by the housing market, having to settle for a substandard rental unit with a negligent landlord. As rent costs in Buncombe County soar, she has grown doubtful that she will find a better living situation soon. The prospect of owning her own home here is beyond imagination.
Both their struggles reflect our growing housing crisis, where people with stable jobs and decent pay are running out of housing options in Buncombe County. People like the teachers, artists, service industry workers, small-business owners, nurses and others who make Buncombe County such a vibrant place to live.
In response to this dilemma, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners recently approved a ballot referendum that will direct $30 million toward the preservation of open space and $40 million toward the development of housing that is affordable for the county’s workforce. This November, county residents will get to vote on the bonds separately.
Mountain Express, John Brigham, Asheville, 1¼/2022
The North Carolina state legislature has moved the assignment of Asheville City Board of Education members from appointed by City Council to elected by voters. The election in November includes votes for four of eight candidates.
The best image of these persons may be from this video [avl.mx/c4o]. It was produced by the local Democratic Party of Buncombe County. The video is a bit long, but by jumping around within the video, it does not take long to find an image of these candidates. This aspect of the election is very important.
Thank you for reading and contributing, I hope you have a safe weekend.