“Voting is our ticket to change,” Lavelle said. “Everyone who is complaining and upset about how the General Assembly has been passing strange laws this past year, well that happened because a lot of people didn’t get out to vote when they should have.”
In her recent op-ed published in The (Raleigh) News & Observer, Lavelle highlighted the struggle that disenfranchised groups have gone through in the last century to earn their right to vote.
The op-ed is part of a group effort between the unopposed candidates for the Board of Aldermen in Carrboro — Bethany Chaney, Damon Seils and Michelle Johnson, as well as Lavelle — to increase voting numbers this next election.
“The other candidates in Carrboro and I got together and thought since we didn’t have to put our energy into running campaigns, we (would) do everything we could to get people out to vote, and start a pattern in voting in elections,” Lavelle said.
Like their mayor, Carrboro residents are also adamant that voting is a right that must be exercised.
“We’re all a part of our communities — if we don’t vote how are we supposed to enact change?” Carrboro resident Victoria Rust said.
Bruce Thomas, also a Carrboro resident, said he feels the American people should be more grateful for their ability to vote in free democratic elections.
“You get the chance to vote for who you want as opposed to someone just getting put up there (in office),” Thomas said.
