The Rhino Times Election 2016 Schmoozefest will be held on Thursday, Oct. 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Suite 300 at 212 South Elm St., better known as the Kress Building. This new 10,000-square-foot special events center features a waterfall wall in the entry and a salt water aquarium. Since this is the last Schmoozefest before election, we expect a number of candidates to attend.
As always, hors d’ouevres, beer and wine are provided to those who sign in and wear a name tag.
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We got it wrong when quoting Greensboro City Attorney Tom Carruthers last week in the article, “Vaughan Caves To Shouters At Meeting.” We quoted Carruthers as saying that he didn’t agree that there was a vote, because in the confusion of a three-way discussion we thought that was what he meant.
What Carruthers was disagreeing with was the statement made by City Councilmember Mike Barber, who is an attorney, that for Mayor Nancy Vaughan to release the results of a vote in closed session was a misdemeanor. Carruthers said that he characterized it as a consensus, but that Vaughan was correct in saying that a vote took place.
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If the federal courts are going to insist that it is unconstitutional to require a registered voter to produce identification in order to vote, then North Carolina should do away with early voting.
During early voting, the election officials have no idea who most people are. I could go in and vote as Orson Scott Card and the odds are, even if the poll worker were a big science fiction fan, they wouldn’t know I wasn’t him.
One of the ideas behind precinct voting is that the workers at the precinct know many of the voters. Orson Scott Card couldn’t go to Page High School on Nov. 8 to vote and say he was me because the precinct workers would know that he isn’t. But during early voting the election workers have no idea who most of the voters are.
You might know a lot of people in Greensboro, but it is a city of over 280,000. Even the late Congressman Howard Coble, who seemed to know everyone, only knew a small percentage of the population.
Early voting without identification is asking for increased voter fraud.
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Dot Kearns, a former Guilford County Board of Education member and former chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, has announced that she does not want Triangle Lake Montessori Elementary School named for her.
If the school board is looking for a good name, the Rhino Times would like to suggest Rhino Montessori Elementary School. We would even donate several rhinoceros that could be displayed around the school, and might be talked into parting with a fiberglass replica of a rhino head that would look great in the principal’s office, as long as it’s a big office.
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Early voting has started, which means, if it hasn’t happened already, people are going to start complaining about voting machines voting for the wrong candidate. This happens at every election.
The key is to make certain that the candidates you want to vote for show up on your screen when you check your vote. If they don’t, you should let an elections official know.
Screens get out of calibration and every year people are convinced that there is some right-wing or left-wing conspiracy. At least around here it isn’t true. Sometimes it’s human error and sometimes computer error, but as long as you check your vote before you hit that final button, you won’t vote for the wrong candidate.
