TO THE EDITOR:
Chapel Hill voters face big choices in the November election (early voting runs Oct. 22-31). Four seats are open on the eight-member board and each voter can cast up to four votes. Three incumbents seek another term (Donna Bell, Lee Storrow and Jim Ward), while three challengers are running on a slate under the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town banner (Jessica Anderson, Nancy Oates and David Schwartz). There are three others running: Adam Jones, Paul Neebe and Michael Parker. Each voter may cast up to four votes. In addition to those who registered to vote this fall, students who registered in Orange County in past years remain eligible to vote, and can report address changes, if needed, during early voting.
I’ve followed Chapel Hill politics for a long time, starting in 1973 when I was at the UNC School of Law and was the first student ever elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council.
As voters look at who to vote for, it’s important to look at demographics and think of whether the council should represent all segments of the Chapel Hill populace. The 2010 census and other data tells that of Chapel Hill’s population of about 57,000, 43 percent lived in owner-occupied homes, 41 percent in apartments, and 16 percent in dorms. Lee Storrow is the only tenant currently on council.
Unusually for a predominantly white, Southern town, there has been at least one Black member (except short vacancies after death or resignation) continuously since Hubert Robinson’s election in 1953, an extraordinary 62-year run. Donna Bell seeks a second term and is the only Black candidate running.
Of Chapel Hill’s voting age population just under 38 percent are under age 25, and 47 percent are under 30. Yet only three persons under the age of 25 have ever been elected to council, me in 1973 at age 23, Mark Chilton in 1991 at age 21, and Lee Storrow at age 22 in 2011.
It’s hardly true that young voters and renters have had disproportionate involvement in town elections. A database of voters in the 2013 town election, indicates about 10 percent of the votes were cast by tenants or dorm residents. Students vote heavily in presidential elections but their participation in town elections is anemic.
Take advantage of early voting Oct. 22-31. There are four sites, the closest location to UNC is Chapel of the Cross, located on East Franklin Street between Morehead Planetarium and Spencer Residence Hall.
