At last night’s County Commissioner’s meeting, I rose in the Public Comments section to speak out against Tax Increment Financing bonds (TIFs), now made possible in North Carolina by the (fraudulent) passing of Amendment One. I reiterated the arguments in the entry "Just say ‘No’ to Amendment One" below, and pointed out that Lincoln County voters actually voted against Amendment One 52-48%, when we voted in favor of the other two amendments by 76% and 66%, respectively. I urged them to consider the will of the people they represent and to not inflict TIFs on the people of Lincoln County, but instead to put any bond measure on the ballot and let us decide. During the break, I was complimented by several people attending the meeting who also voted against Amendment One.

If you’re in Lincoln County, I urge you to go to the Commissioners meeting and make this same argument: that we voted against Amendment One and, therefore, the Commissioners should not take our county into further debt without our approval. If you live elsewhere in North Carolina, see how your city or county voted (you can get these statistics from your local Board of Elections) and, if your local vote went against Amendment One, go to your city council or county commissioners and make this same plead. You made your voice heard on Nov. 2nd; now make sure your representatives listen.

Well, any Lincoln County candidate who wasn’t a Republican got trampled Tuesday. Although we’re still waiting for the official results, the unofficial results have me getting 3,597 votes, or about 5.2%. I must admit to being disappointed; I thought I would do much better and I thought that the race would be much closer. Of course, that was before eighty bazillion Republicans showed up on Election Day. I was stumping at the Westport precinct, the biggest precinct in the county, at about 2:00 on election day when one of the workers came out and said they had already had 85% turnout. I knew then that all of my projections were out of the water.

Still, I have a lot of things to be pleased about. I received over 3½ times as many votes as I did in 2002, I received a greater percentage than Jack Stratton did in Mecklenburg County with a lot more publicity and name recognition, and I even got more votes than Ralph Nader did in some states (including Mississippi, Wyoming, and Delaware). The good fight is still going on, and we’re making progress.

Now we have to make sure we stay on the ballot. We’ll have to get about 60,000 signatures from valid registered voters (about 100,000 signatures all total before the BOE kicks out the invalid ones). If you believe in having your choice of candidates on Election Day, then please go to the LPNC Ballot Access web page to download, print, and mail in the petition. Even if you only send in one signature, it’s worth it to us! In 2000, it cost the Libertarian Party of North Carolina over $100,000 just to stay on the ballot. The more signatures we get from people like you, the less money we’ll have to spend on ballot access and the more money we’ll have left to run and publicize candidates for office.

You must be a registered voter in the state of NC for your signature to count, and the address etc. on the petition must match your voter registration. If you’re an NC resident over the age of 18 but aren’t registered, or you want to make sure your registration information is correct, just use the Register to Vote in NC link on the right side of this page. Then send in your petition!

Much thanks to everyone who donated to and supported my candidacy and the Libertarian Party. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got a long way to go. Be strong, and be free!