Early voting is now under way for North Carolina’s May 8 primary. Between now and May 5, you can vote if you are already registered, and you can register and vote at the same time (one-stop voting) if you are not already registered. To find out the places and hours for early voting in your county, click here and search for your county.
You can also vote early the “old-fashioned” way by requesting an absentee ballot and returning it, postmarked by May 7. Click here for more information. Only those who are already registered will be able to vote at the polls on May 8, and the deadline for regular registration has already passed.
For more information, contact your county board of elections. Or go to the State Board of Elections site by clicking here.
The May ballot includes Amendment One, and the Council is working with others in opposition to the measure. If passed, this amendment to the state’s constitution would define marriage in a way that excludes gays and lesbians and that severely limits benefits and rights to same-gender and opposite-gender couples who are not married. A toolkit for people of faith who oppose Amendment One is available here.
It is crucially important that people of faith who oppose the marriage amendment go to the polls and vote against it. You might do it because, like the Council’s leadership, you believe that this is discrimination that doesn’t belong in the constitution. Or you might do it because you think gays and lesbians should have the right to marry. Or because you are concerned about children of unmarried couples, straight or gay, who could lose health care benefits. Or because it could scare off businesses looking at relocating to NC.
Whatever your reason, please make your voice heard by voting on May 8 or before.
–George Reed, Executive Director