This update is all about elections; a little late—but still relevant for future elections.

Windsor | Bertie County Changes to Local Elections.  Bertie County has an Elections Information page located at: http://www.co.bertie.nc.us/departments/elections/elections.html . The page is informative and has great links to other information.  One of the primary changes is that PHOTO ID is NOW required. Apparently, the Republican lead North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the injunction against moving forward with implementing the Photo ID legislation.  So, IDs are now required to vote in North Carolina.

I did not know I could not vote in “municipal elections”. So, yes… I was ignorant of the fact that I could not vote in “town” elections.  I live on the “out skirt” of the town of Windsor—granted.  But, we have to deal with the “town” a lot.  Burn Permits—Town.  Fishing and Hunting permits—Town.  Water Bill… I think…. Town/County-ish.  So my question is, Why can we not have a vote on who is chosen as our town commissioners? Anybody know? I called around but did not get a direct answer.  I think that needs to change.  And for the record, I generally like the commissioners and don’t have beef with anyone—I just want to maximize the vote.  Otherwise, we should be able to do our own thing in the out skirts, like… have a working well as well as have the choice of city connection –if we want to.  What is your input? Maybe a say in all elections will help bring parks, and recreational facilities to the ‘out skirts’ of the town in to more of the community.  Comment below!

A State of Emergency for Public Education.  Did you know that Governor Cooper has declared that public education in North Carolina is facing a state of emergency?  I was researching a few things about elections, grants and how money is spent… and then I ran across a notice indicating there was a public education crisis in North Carolina. In short, he is requesting that citizens (voters) contact state legislators and others to voice your concerns.  I think this is an excellent opportunity for change!  Major elections are coming in 2024 (some local elections are happening now), and we should do all we can to change things for the better.  Even if you don’t have “school aged children” attending school right now; the children who are in school are the future for us all.  It is important that they can function in a workable society.  And function on true facts about the history of this country and our local communities to make things better for everyone. Do the research and heed the call to get involved!  This not only applies to North Carolinians by the way, but this also applies to everyone!

Often, I may write articles or give my opinions about what appears to be “local” issues. But in fact, they can be relevant to a broader community, a global community.  Let’s all get involved and try to influence our political leaders to make decisions that are helpful to everyone in the community.

Become aware of who represents you—A hint to researching.  In researching information for this edition of miNews Updates, I found that a lot of information isn’t as hard to locate as you might think.  If you are interested in finding out who your politicians and representatives are for you specifically, start with your county’s web site.  As I looked through the site where I currently reside, I located a “Directory” page which contained not only the main local contacts, but they also had links to county, state, and federal representatives.  Your city might have the same.  You can start by doing a google search on your location by typing in the “Name and State” of the city you live in.  From the results, look for websites that end in the extensions of “.gov, .us, or maybe .org”.  Those are normally the official information sites of most governmental organizations.

If all else fails, you can also do a Google word search using the term “who represents me?”.  When I did that, the results showed suggestions based on where it thought my geo-location was, and prior Google searches I had performed, indicating both local and national relative websites.

Happy searching!

Well, that is it for this update!  For more news and information, be sure to visit The Lantern page on our site —https://dhspeller.com!  And please visit our other social media links listing on our site.  We have Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram accounts with great content as well! Blessings!