City Councilors believe they can violate the voting rights of minority communities in Raleigh without consequence. UNC School of Government begs to differ! On March 1, at a Public Hearing to comment on a redistricting proposal, Raleigh City Councilors...
City Council misstates law and mischaracterizes public input
At the March 1 public hearing to review and approve new District Maps for Raleigh's City Council, the City Attorney claimed Raleigh is not covered by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and City Staff claimed that the Advocacy Groups who reviewed the proposed maps...
INDY Daily BLASTS City Council’s UNDEMOCRATIC behavior
Jane Porter, Editor-In-Chief of INDYWeek, writes a daily email newsletter, INDY Daily. The March 4, 2022 edition takes on Raleigh's City Council for their most recent undemocratic decision. She asks that we share the newsletter with our friends. So, we reprint it...
Buffkin Pushes Alternative Facts
Councilor Buffkin says Raleigh's new district maps were created in public view and with public input. Nothing could be further from the truth. Councilor Buffkin sent out a newsletter making this claim: "the Council’s decision marked a momentous occasion: the end of...
Mayor Baldwin Launders the Facts thru the Spin Cycle
Mayor Baldwin claims moving 55,419 voters out of their current districts is less disruptive than moving 7,760. Mayor Baldwin's spin to the media: “It was the most balanced that I felt we could do,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said of option two, the preferred map...
City Council is making decisions in SECRET AGAIN!!!
Mayor Baldwin and her City Council majority selected one of three options presented to them for new election district lines without any public discussion of the merits of those three options. They refused to provide the public with any reasoning for their decision....
Livable Raleigh’s Statement on City Council Terms, Compensation and Districts
Livable Raleigh welcomes the chance to comment on proposed changes to the compensation and terms of City Council members and on adding seats to the Council. We hope there is no repeat of the secrecy that surrounded the extension of current Council terms and the...
Charlotte puts the LIE to Mayor Baldwin’s nonsense about census data making a March election impossible
What Democracy NC founder Bob Hall said about Raleigh’s attack on democracy: “Charlotte isn’t delaying their election. They’re having a March election. Greensboro too. It was just a con job to say that they had to postpone the election in the manner they did.” Read...
Bob Hall Comments on Raleigh City Council’s Abuse of Democracy
For more than 50 years, Bob Hall has been North Carolina's foremost advocate for the idea that government should be for the people, ALL the people and not for the corporations and the wealthy. Below are excerpts of what Bob had to say when he spoke at Livable...
Bring elections and voter engagement into the 21st century
Barry Eriksen has been a rustbelt refugee and Triangle transplant for over 40 years and for the last 22 years has lived in West Raleigh’s Fairmont neighborhood. This blog post is adapted from his remarks made during the September 21, 2021, Raleigh City Council...