Early voting open in municipal non-partisan elections

Early voting is now open in North Carolina for the 2025 municipal election season. Early voting will run until Nov. 1. During municipal elections, voter choose officials to represent them in their local governments, including mayor, councilpersons and board of commissioners. “Local elections have the greatest impact on citizens’ day-to-day lives, so it’s important to […]

Jackson County Municipal Election candidates: Who’s Running This Fall

The election will determine leadership for the county’s four incorporated towns: Sylva, Dillsboro, Webster and Forest Hills. The profiles were published in The Sylva Herald.  A total of 17 seats across the four municipalities are up for election, including mayoral and town or village board positions. Residents must live within a municipality for at least […]

NC Senate bill impacting local elections

As this municipality election season kicks off, a recent North Carolina Senate bill may impact some voters.  NC SB 382 covers a wide range of topics, from Hurricane Helene disaster relief to various law changes. Section 3A outlines several administrative changes to Board of Elections processes, including shortening the deadline to cure ballots. When a ballot […]

Local election season kicks off with candidate forum

A version of this story originally published in The Sylva Herald, Aug. 27 edition.Story produced with Halle Stanley Indivisible Common Ground-WNC hosted a forum for candidates in the upcoming local elections to introduce themselves and answer common questions.  Brooklyn Brownie, Joseph Waldrum, Dwight McMahan, Taylor Armstrong, Samuel McGuire and Calvin Autrey are running for town […]

That’s Politics: Unaffiliated Voters and Polarization

The largest voting block in North Carolina are the unaffiliated voters. They are one of the reasons why political science professor and expert on the North Carolina politics, Dr. Chris Cooper, says NC is a purple state even though in has been almost fully controlled by the Republican party. Listen to what Cooper says about […]

SMN: Edwards dodges questions on Medicare, Franklin Social Security office closing

Story from Smoky Mountain News politics editor Cory Vaillancourt, re-published with permission In what could very well be a sneak preview of his in-person town hall in Asheville later today, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) abruptly walked away from a podium in Canton’s Sorrells Street Park and refused to answer questions about federal cuts to programs […]