Durham DA race is hot
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun, Nov 6, 2006 : 9:39 pm ET
DURHAM -- Voters are set to go to the polls today to settle a variety of state and local elections, none hotter than the race for district attorney in Durham County.
Incumbent DA Mike Nifong faces challenges from County Commissioner Lewis Cheek and write-in challenger Steve Monks.
Campaign workers for all three men spent Monday preparing for today's election, lining up precinct-watchers to greet voters and making sure prospective supporters understand the rules that will govern the balloting.
The candidates, meanwhile, traded barbs.
Cheek -- who has said he won't serve if elected, instead allowing Gov. Mike Easley to appoint a new prosecutor -- lent his voice to a so-called "robo-calling" effort that placed automated messages on voters' answering machines. His supporters also bought newspaper advertisements that said Nifong's handling of the Duke lacrosse case "embarrassed us all with his unprofessional and unethical behavior."
Monks was also active on the advertising front, saying in one that Nifong had contributed to Durham's image as a community that's "gang-ridden, crime-ridden, corrupt [and] controlled by a political elite." He maintained that Cheek's strategy would exacerbate matters by leaving the selection of the next DA up to the same governor who picked the incumbent.
Nifong fired back at the challengers with an e-mail to supporters that accused Cheek and Monks of running single-issue campaigns. "They have endeavored to make this election something it is not: a referendum on a single case that [they] view as a threat to their sense of entitlement and that they do not trust a jury of Durham citizens to decide," he said in the e-mail.
One key group of Cheek supporters, the Recall Nifong/Vote Cheek committee, planned to post volunteers at 20 to 25 of the county's 56 precincts. The group's leader, Beth Brewer, said pro-Cheek activists selected the precincts based on their size and the candidates voters in those precincts backed in the May primary.
Monks' campaign manager, Charlotte Woods, said her candidate is expecting volunteer help today from college Republicans from Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. She added that she'd fielded many phone inquiries from potential supporters who wanted to know how to cast write-in votes.
The Cheek campaign was also trying to make sure would-be supporters understood that the rules on straight-party voting allow them to cast such a ballot and also vote for Cheek in the DA's race.
County Board of Elections Director Mike Ashe said a vote cast for either Cheek or Monks would override the straight-ticket preference in that race alone and not affect a voter's choices in other races.
Ashe said 4,775 Durham voters have already cast ballots by visiting the Board of Elections during the one-stop voting period, which ended Saturday.
The one-stop turnout for today's general election was significantly higher than it was for the May primary, when 1,309 people cast ballots. Only 1,073 people cast one-stop votes in last year's City Council elections.
Ashe nonetheless wasn't taking the early count as a sign of things to come today. "We had better-than-expected turnout for the one-stop voting, but don't know if that translates to Tuesday or not," he said. "It's very hard to do comparisons election to election."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-785634.html
Each election has a variation for workers
Director inserts humor in sessions
Eric Ferreri, Staff Writer, N&O, Published: Nov 07, 2006 12:30 AM
DURHAM - When it comes to running an election, Mike Ashe seems to know everything.
Without looking, Durham's elections director can tell you that the types of identification a citizen can show in order to vote are explained on page 52 of the elections manual.
He knows -- again, with no manual in sight -- that information on the five signs that must be posted at all polling sites is found on page 9. At the bottom of the page.
And he knows the value of a joke. Which is why, during the several training sessions he held in the two weeks before today's elections, Ashe repeatedly stressed the most important thing all poll workers must remember.
"Never, never turn anyone away for any reason," he says.
"Why?" he asks.
He slides a three-word phrase onto his overhead projector, and the 50 or so folks in the room erupt in laughter.
"We're not Florida," it reads.
In all, about 350 people will staff Durham County's 56 voting precincts today. There's a lot of white hair in this crowd, a lot of experience that Ashe rewards with commemorative lapel pins. Dozens have worked the polls for at least 20 years. Nine have put in at least 32 years. Still, they troop in each year for their mandatory brush-up course.
"There's always something a little bit different," said Connie Hinshaw, 69, a 36-year veteran of Election Day. "It helps remind me of things maybe I haven't thought about."
This year, poll workers need to know which variations of "Steve Monks" will get the write-in candidate an official vote. Monks, a local lawyer, has emerged as a long-shot candidate in the highly anticipated election featuring controversial incumbent Mike Nifong and County Commissioner Lewis Cheek, whose name is on the ballot but has already said he won't take the job.
Lest poll workers not be sure of what scribbles count for a Monks vote, Ashe has made a list of 16 possible variations, including 'Mok," "Steve" and "Munk".
"It's an election," Ashe points out. "Not a spelling test."
Ashe is half-comedian, half master-of-ceremonies during these training sessions, which he seasons with more than a pinch of patriotism. All volunteers recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the outset and later stand to recite an oath of office. Ashe directs all this with effervescence and a constant smile, an American flag tie -- one of at least 15 that he owns -- splashing a tasteful black suit.
A woman asks about a voting form. Silly question, apparently. A half-dozen voices immediately begin answering, the volume rising until it becomes impossible to hear anything.
Ashe quickly brings everyone to silence.
"OK," he says. "Everyone got it right!"
Though a stickler for the rule book, Ashe allows church and state to intersect just briefly as he puts in his request for a smooth Election Day with no glitches or vote-counting controversy.
"Let's all say a group prayer," he announces. "We don't care who wins district attorney. We want someone to win by a whole bunch!"
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/507188.html