There's still a week of early voting to go, but we've already seen a black voter threatened with a BB gun in Charlotte, voting machines in Guilford County mismarking ballots and poll workers in Brunswick County giving dozens of voters the wrong ballots.
As if that weren't enough, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest posted a video online providing a how-to on committing voter fraud. Supporters said the video, which was paid for by one of Forest's PAC, was merely to demonstrate the need for voters to approve an amendment on the ballot that would require photo identification to vote in person in future elections.
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People are flocking to early voting sites statewide, and North Carolina appears poised to set a new record for early voting in a midterm election. Fewer than half of those who have cast ballots so far voted early in 2014, either because they have moved to North Carolina in recent years or are newly registered.
Elsewhere, Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne, issued a letter to his constituents saying, "I am not dead." He missed the recent special session on Hurricane Florence recovery and is rumored to be in ill health, but he apparently insists he's not that bad off.
Smithfield Foods, which has lost three nuisance lawsuits despite lawmakers' efforts in recent years from such suits, has agreed to cover hog waste lagoons at some of its North Carolina farms and capture the methane to produce biogas. The major pork producer also said it would change the systems it uses to spray waste on farm fields and reduce truck traffic at teh farms, two complaints of neighbors who sued.
Finally, UNC President Margaret Spellings announced her plans to step down on March 1 after three years leading the 17-campus system.