Editorial: Show up! Vote! Make sure your voice is heard

CBC Editorial: Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022; editorial #8802
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

How high are the stakes in the outcome of today’s elections?

Nothing more than the quality public education every child in North Carolina is promised by our state Constitution. That’s just for starters.

How votes are cast will determine whether deserving North Carolinians get access to health care they need, if women will be able to make their own health care decisions, whether our public universities maintain their world-class stature and whether future elections will allow voters to determine who represents them in Congress or in the General Assembly – or whether those votes are mere coronation for the outcomes powerful politicians have pre-ordained by gerrymandering.

Elections make a difference. That is no understatement when it comes to the significance of voting. If you need information about voting you can go online to the State Board of Elections voter information website HERE where you can find out where your polling place is and a sample ballot. You can also call (919) 814-0700.

When it comes to the future of public education, state Senate leader Phil Berger made that clear in his office’s reaction to last week’s landmark state Supreme Court ruling. The high court reinforced an order that the state MUST fund the comprehensive remedial plan to  assure every child has an opportunity for a quality education -- a promise too-long delayed and denied.

“Prediction: Not a dime of taxpayer money is ultimately spent on this unprecedented and unconstitutional order before it is blocked and reversed by a newly seated NC Supreme Court next year,” tweeted Berger’s senior policy lawyer.

He was clearly predicting that Berger’s candidates for state Supreme Court would win the election Tuesday and the most powerful legislator in the General Assembly had already exacted from them a commitment to reverse the decision – in line no doubt with the dissent to the court’s ruling that Berger’s son authored.

Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore and even state Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt have yet to offer up any comprehensive alternative – short of legislative wheel-spinning, throwing money at private schools with no corresponding demands for accountability, opening up public education to be run by private corporations and maintaining a nationally bottom-dwelling ranking for per-student support.

As voters head to the polls on election day, they should focus on what is best for North Carolina – not for Democrats or Republicans. There are critical choices to be made for justices on our state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Voters should pick those who promise independence and are not designees of a political agenda dictated by legislative leaders or those with narrow special interests and who have a political agenda and deep pockets to finance campaigns.

As concerns the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the General Assembly, voters should cast ballots for candidates who will not be beholden to a specific personality or ideology.

As concerns the critical choices for the state’s General Assembly, voters should back candidates who agree to:

Expand Medicaid to more than half-million citizens now denied health care by state law merely because some legislators don’t like former President Barack Obama. Don’t be fooled by the talk of compromise or deals on Medicaid expansion. It is all about delay and deny.  No one should be playing politics when lives are in the balance.

Change the laws by which it draws congressional and legislative district election maps. Lawyers are making money and keeping the courts busy as the gerrymandering of the legislature repeatedly gets challenged – and just as often found failing to meet Constitutional muster. It is past time to adopt non-partisan criteria for drawing congressional and legislative election district lines and enact a non-partisan system to do it.

Remove the hyper-partisanship that has taken over the governance and management of the University of North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper has initiated an important, non-partisan program to review the current failing system and recommend ways to make the system and those who lead it more representative of our state, focused on the needs of our students and faculty and not on imposition of political or ideological agendas.

Assure that the state’s prisons and local jails have the resources needed to be properly staffed and outfitted with appropriate up-to-date technology so the facilities are safe and secure – both for those who work in them and those who are incarcerated.

Pass major bond issues – now before interest rates increase even more and are less affordable. Delay would be irresponsible and require paying higher interest payments that, had legislators already acted, would have saved taxpayers millions. This borrowing will create jobs and inject needed capital into the state's economy. Voters should be offered at least: $2 billion for K-12 public schools; $500 million each for community colleges and University of North Carolina System facilities; $800 million to help local water and sewer projects; and $100 million for historic, cultural and other state facilities.

Special interests and political parties may say elections are about them and what they want. These issues aren’t partisan.

Pick candidates who make a better North Carolina's future -- education, health, safety and economy -- their priorities.

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