Early Voting Begins Tomorrow

Beginning tomorrow, you can cast your ballot. There are early voting sites throughout Wake County. Some are even open over the weekend. If you want to help a campaign, mine or another of your choice, one simple way is to hang around after you cast your early ballot -- give others who are entering the polls some information or literature about your favorite candidates. Just make sure to maintain the proper distance from the voting booth: the distance will be marked at each site. If you are interested in helping, just contact the campaign for literature or talking points. For more information about the polling sites and the hours, please follow this link to our Wake County Board of Elections. Let your voice be heard. Vote and be counted.

Register to Vote

As election day rushes toward us, I just want to give a couple of reminders:

Tomorrow, October 10, 2008 is the last day to register to vote in North Carolina. Registration forms that are received by the county board of elections OR are postmarked by the deadline are accepted. After registering, voters will be notified by the county board of elections of their precinct and polling places. IF you have not completed your registration in this conventional manner, you can still vote if you use the One-Stop Absentee voting process, just (1) go to a One-Stop Voting site in your home county, (2) fill out a voter registration application, and (3) provide proof of residency by showing the elections official an appropriate form of identification with your name and address. THIS WILL ONLY WORK FOR EARLY VOTING, NOT ON ELECTION DAY. Early voting starts on October 16th and ends on November 1st. We have 15 early voting sites in Wake County, making it very convenient and easy to vote early. For a list of the sites, you can go to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.

As you vote, please remember that pulling a straight-party ticket will not place a vote for president or for the non-partisan races like the judicial races. Voting is a three-step process: President, partisan races, judicial races. Make your full vote count.

Join us on the Spanish Riviera

I want to invite you to a fundraiser to be held on Thursday, September 18, 2008; from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at The Riveria Mediterranean Resto & Lounge, 135 South Wilmington Street, Raleigh. I deeply appreciate the many sponsors who have made the event possible. Donations of $50 are suggested at the door. I hope you can attend the event, enjoy a Tango exhibition dance by fellow family law specialist Carolyn J. Woodruff, move to music provided by DJ Chico Scott, and have a bite to eat. Dust off your dancing shoes!

In Memorium

In commemorating fallen members of our armed forces on Monday, my thoughts turned to the veterans in my family, those who live and those who have perished. In particular, I turned to the writings of my great-uncle. Uncle Jim, a medic with the 977th F.A. Army Brigade during WWII, earned conscientious objector status before volunteering to serve. He enlisted in the medical corps and carried the tools of healing to the front lines of war, rather than (and to the exclusion of) a gun, providing relief where he could and serving witness. In 2006, his account of the liberation of Dachau and 12 of his poems were made part of the permanent collection at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Today, on the original, May 30th, date of Memorial Day, I wanted to post one of his works.

In Memory of Memory (Charles Edwards: Overlooking the Valencia-Madrid Road, 2/17/37) To be first, we say, is “what it’s all about”;

that assumes that, when one’s reached a peak,

he can savor where he is by looking down

or back or smug at those whom he’s outdone;

but what of one whose peak’s an instant grave,

whose firstness is his everlastingness?

what savor lingers? on what gourmet tongue?

it is a brackish water (taste of dead dreams)

unless the living lavish on the lost

the utmost honor: keeping him in mind.

James Worley

Endorsements from the Wake County Voter Coalition and NCAWA

I enjoyed a wonderful sunny day yesterday greeting voters at Chavis Community Center. A diverse, steady and energetic stream of voters poured through the polling place all afternoon. One youth group came straight from its Sunday service so that many of the members could place their first-ever votes. Parents were accompanied by their children -- including a 96 year old mother whose daughter pulled in for curbside voting. Some voters had been voting in Wake County for years, others arrived with voter registration forms in hand. I was accompanied by members of the Wake County Voter Education Coalition, whose endorsement I was proud to receive last week, and was joined by the representatives of other campaigns. Then, topping off an already good day, I got home to the news that I have received the endorsement of the NC Association of Women Attorneys. The NCAWA has a judicial endorsements committee that investigates and evaluates candidates on several criteria. The committee considers not only the legal skill and ability of those in a race, but also such things as judicial temperament, and involvement in the community and the profession. I am humbled and heartened by the faith that so many have placed in me, and will continue to work hard to serve our Wake County communities.