Since The Polls Are Still Open

The polls are still open up and down the East Coast. Of course, they are open in the time zones west of here.

As a reminder to North Carolinians, the polls close at 7:30pm EST. In case you are wondering who is pro-gun rights and who is anti, the Grass Roots NC Political Victory Fund has these recommendations. As of yesterday, almost 4.5 million votes have already been cast between early voting and absentee ballots returned. You can follow the election results for North Carolina on the State Board of Elections Results Dashboard. I like this better than any TV or radio station as you get the actual, up-to-the-minute results without all the useless commentary.

For other states, a number of organizations have their own scorecards. NSSF has their ratings of members of Congress here. Gun Owners of America has their voter guide on this page. The NRA Political Victory Fund has their grades on candidates by state here.

Conversely, if you want to know who is running that would joyfully trample on your God-given, Constitutionally enumerated rights, Everytown has their search engine for “gunsense” candidates here. Unlike many other endorsement or ratings lists, Everytown drills down as low as candidates for board of education along with the usual legislative, state level, and national endorsements. I have to give them credit for realizing that candidates for school boards now are the congressional candidates of the future. Moreover, these are the people who will be pushing teachers to indoctrinate students with their anti-rights rhetoric.

Bloomberg-funded The Trace has a list of items that they say Donald Trump will toss if elected. It starts with ATF Director Steve Dettelbach and ends with Biden’s executive orders. I was already going to vote for Trump so they didn’t have to use this list to convince me but I’m cool with it.

I have been registered to vote for over 49 years and have never (ever!) missed voting in an election or primary since then. This includes municipal elections and second primaries. I have no sympathy for complaints from anyone of any political stripe who didn’t vote when given the opportunity.

For North Carolinians From GRNC-PVF

Grass Roots North Carolina-Political Victory Fund reminds all North Carolinians that today is the last day to regularly register to vote in the November General Election. Registration closes at 5pm this afternoon. However, if you miss this deadline, you can still register to vote if you take advantage of early voting up through November 2nd.

Other deadlines:

Oct. 11 (5 PM): Deadline for voter registration or to update registration (e.g. for an address change). Click here for details. To check your voter registration, click here. Note: If you are registered as “unaffiliated,” you may vote in either the Democrat or Republican primary election. [Important note: If you miss this deadline, you can still vote using one stop early voting.]  

Oct. 17: General Election one stop early voting begins. Click here for details. Click here to find your One Stop Early Voting place.

Oct. 29 (5 PM): Last day to submit an absentee ballot request form. Click here for information on voting by mail.

Nov. 2 (3 PM): In-person one stop early voting ends. This is last day you can both register and vote at same time.

Nov. 5 (6:30 AM – 7:30 PM): Election Day: Click here to find your polling place on Election Day. 

Nov. 5 (5 PM): Absentee ballot return deadline.

Reportedly, over 10 million hunters are not registered to vote. Presumably most are gun owners. Even if they aren’t, policies of the Biden-Harris administration have not been friendly to either gun owners or hunters. Whether it is closing land to hunting or banning lead ammunition on certain wildlife refuges, they have not had the interests of hunters at heart. If you are one of these unregistered voters, it is time to get off your ass and register to vote. And then vote like your guns and your hunting rights depend on them because they do.

The GRNC-PVF has also released their recommendations for the 2024 General Election. You can download the whole list here.

I would note that in both my State Senate and State House districts the Republican challengers to the zero-star Democrat incumbents didn’t bother to return GRNC’s survey. How damn stupid can you be not to take advantage of something that differentiates you from your opponent and might give you a point or two more votes. The GOP is not known as the Stupid Party without reason.

Likewise, in two Council of State races, the Republican didn’t bother to return the GRNC survey. In the case of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey (R-NC), he faces vehemently anti-gun State Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg). I have written about Marcus in the past. She proudly proclaims her membership in Moms Demand Action and has tried to distort the racist history of the origins of the pistol purchase permit. You can imagine what she might do to gun owners if given the power of the Insurance Commissioner’s office.