Learning

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.

Will Rogers

Voting Convenience

I've been telling people about the on-line conveniences for voters in North Carolina, but I hadn't tried them out.

Until now.

I decided to look for my very own sample ballot for the May 4th Primary. Here's how:

1. Log on the the Pamlico County Government web site;
2. Click on Departments;
3. Select Elections;
4. Click on "Registration Lookup and Sample Ballot;"
5. You will find yourself at the State Board of Elections site;
6. Fill in your name and date of birth, then select Pamlico from the drop down list of counties;
7. Click "submit" and you will see your voter information, including voter history;
8. Click "my sample ballot," and you will see your very own ballot style for the May 4th Primary, based on your party registration and where you live.

Amazing!

The State Board of Elections has posted this information for every registered voter in North Carolina.

You still have to make up your own mind who to vote for.

Voter Qualifications

Every citizen of the United States has the right to vote somewhere - unless that right has been taken away by a court. Even citizens who live abroad have the right to vote.

It wasn't always that way. As I pointed out elsewhere, the United States began with a restricted electorate, but has been expanding it over the years. Of the four individuals who take part in meetings of the Pamlico County Board of Elections, I am the only one who would have been allowed to vote by our original constitution. If, that is, I had owned enough property and didn't adhere to the wrong religion.

I am old enough to remember poll taxes, white primaries, protracted residence requirements, domicile restrictions (wife must have the same domicile as the husband), literacy tests, and polling place obstacles preventing those with handicaps from voting. My mother was born before women had the constitutional right to vote. My daughter in law's parents (Pottawatamie and Cherokee tribes) were born before Native Americans were granted citizenship rights. I remember when voter registration offices were seldom open.

Those obstacles have all been removed.

There are procedures to be followed, but the presumption is in favor of the opportunity of the voter to vote, not in favor of procedural obstacles to voting.

The reason we have election judges at polling places is that some circumstances require judgment. As the Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections has said, "Since the voting process involves so many people and a never-ending variety of situations may present themselves, we must trust our elections officials to use good judgment and common sense."

Wallace v. Sanford

Many people remember the key sound bite from George Wallace's 1963 inaugural address as Governor of Alabama: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Fewer remember the central theme of Wallace's 1962 campaign: opposition to registration of African American voters. That theme emerged as early as 1959 when then circuit court judge Wallace refused to turn over voting records to a federal commission investigating discrimination against black voters. He eventually turned the records over under threat of jail, but continued to posture against the federal government.

Elsewhere in 1962 while Wallace was running for governor, Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi incited a mob of people proud to call themselves "rednecks" to riot at the University of Mississippi to prevent James Meredith from entering the University.

1963 was a blur of events: George Wallace "stood in the schoolhouse door" to oppose entry of two black students into the University of Alabama; Medgar Evers was shot and killed; Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech in Washington, DC.

Almost unnoticed in the rest of the country, four days after George Wallace's defiant inaugural, Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina said it was time to "quit unfair discrimination and to give the Negro a full chance to earn a decent living for his family and to contribute to the higher standards for himself and all men."

A long-lost eight-minute film of that speech - a unique declaration by a Southern governor in that era - was shown publicly for the first time earlier this evening in Chapel Hill.

Talk about a profile in courage!

Certainty

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Voting Starts Thursday

One Stop voting starts Thursday morning at 8:00 at the Board of Elections office in Bayboro. It continues until May first.

One stop is a great way to vote. The polls are open for thirteen days. You can pick your own day and avoid the crowd.

You can also register and vote the same day. North Carolina is one of ten states with some form of same day registration. If you have moved, you can correct your voting information.

Come on by and vote. If you have questions about the candidates, ask your party chair for the lowdown.

Two Kinds of People

Long ago I concluded there are two kinds of people in the world: sail boaters and power boaters.

You may complain that not everyone owns a boat.

That misses the point. It is a question of attitude, not platform.

Sail boaters are always alert to the world around them. What is the wind doing? What will it do? Which way is the current moving? Sailors don't just analyze the surface of things. They want to know what's under the surface. There may be unseen obstacles.

Sailors know how to reach their goal by indirection. If the destination is upwind, change course back and forth (tack) to reach the goal. It might take a bit longer, but it works. They trim their sails to make the boat go faster, and sometimes to operate more efficiently.

Most of all, sailors know that every destination is just a way station toward another destination, not the end of a voyage. It's about the going, not the getting there.

To be sure, there are people who own and operate power boats who think along the same lines. I say they are really sailors at heart. Many of them own trawlers.

But if you hear someone express disdain for tacking and trimming sails, that person is a power boater. Especially if they just want to aim the pointy end in a particular direction and push the throttle all the way forward.

There's room in the world for both kinds.

As my fellow Oklahoman, Will Rogers observed:

A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries.

Reading

A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.

Mark Twain