Goodbye (and Good Riddance) to 2020
"I'm going to stay up until midnight Dec. 31 just to make sure 2020 leaves." (Facebook meme)
Despite COVID, 2020 was another good year for the Wake Libertarian Party. All of our General Assembly candidates did well, adding more evidence to the view that money doesn't guarantee votes. Even with a shoestring budget, a Libertarian candidate can have an impact on the election.
North Carolina set a record for voter turnout at 75.3%.
One thing is clear – North Carolina is still deeply purple. Democrat Governor Roy Cooper did not win re-election by as big a margin as most polls predicted, but he still won. And soon-to-be-former Republican President Donald Trump won the state.
One thing the polls were right about is how people were going to vote. Most voters used early in-person (49%) or voted by absentee ballot (13.6%).
Read moreA Rational Conversation: COVID and Criminal Justice Reform
Watch this conversation between three Libertarian candidates for the legislative candidates as they talk about the two topics now dominating the election, COVID-19 pandemic and criminal justice reform.
When 2020 began, neither of these issues was on any political pundit’s radar. Now they seem to be all any of them talk about.
Sadly, as with many issues, it is not reasoned, rational debate. Instead, political discourse has degenerated into name-calling and tribal warfare between “good” and “evil.”
Wearing – or not wearing – a mask has become both a fashion statement and a political statement.
Libertarians Travis Groo (NC Senate 17), Bruce Basson (NC House 36), and Dee Watson (NC House 49) have a different view.
They, like all Libertarians, believe we can build a healthy, safe, free, peaceful, and prosperous North Carolina another way. By harnessing the limitless potential of a free people who can work together to solve these and other issues.
Early Voting Best Chance to Connect to Voters
Early voting is our best chance to let every Wake voter know they have a real choice. A smiling volunteer handing out candidate literature at an early voting site has proven to provide a bump of 4 to 9 percent in our vote totals in previous elections.
Every voter in Wake will have the opportunity to choose at least four Libertarians. Most voters in southern Wake will get to choose six Libertarian candidates in all the major races, from president to state legislator.
So we're focusing our early voting effort in Southern Wake, at these sites: the W.E. Hunt Recreation Center, Holly Springs; W.O. Council Gym, Fuquay-Varina; Apex Community Center; Wake Tech South Campus, and; the Cary Senior Center.
These sites include overlapping districts, U.S Congress 2, state Senate 17, and portions of state House 11, 36, 37, and 41. In two of these races, the establishment party candidates are polling within five points of each other, and in another, it’s a dead heat.
Libertarian candidates will have an impact on the outcome of these races.
Early voting hours are:
Monday - Friday: 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday: 1 to 6 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 31 (Last day): 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
We need people to work the early voting site near you for as many days as they can and for as many hours as they can so voters will know they have an alternative to the duopoly.
Sign up here.
If you'd rather work a site close to your home, look it up here and then contact David Ulmer, WakeLP chair.