I got a daily double today, letters in both the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News and Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/22/1360661/rights-vs-privileges.html

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/07/22/2471994/the-observer-forum.html

Charlotte, N.C. – With more than four decades of professional and community service to her credit, Ann Newman today announced her candidacy for the N.C. House of Representatives – District 103. The district encompasses east Charlotte, Matthews and Mint Hill.

It looks like the voters here in Mecklenburg figured out that you had to vote for president separate. I don't think there is a way to see if the people who voted straight ticket also voted for president, but 98.9% of all voters voted for a presidential candidate, 98.1% voted in the governor's race and 97.7% voted in the senate race.

The machines here remind us at the end if we have missed any races and gives us a chance to go back before we cast our ballot so I am sure that this helped.

How did other counties do?

One of our intiatives during early voting is called "Souls to the Polls" where we get houses of faith and other faith based orgs to get their people out to vote on the Sunday during the early voting period. I volunteered to ferry people from one of our transitional housing projects to the nearest early voting sites.

These are people who are trying to get off the streets and just need some help. Most are chemical dependent but they have to be clean to stay in the housing. We had a voter registration drive at these projects last month and now we were getting them to vote. I took several people to vote for the first time today. You could see the pride in their faces when they walked out with their early voting stickers on. It brought tears to my eyes.