Voting for Elective Offices? | Eastern NC Now

Diogenes Lamp

By:  Ray Leary

Voting for Elective Offices?

Voting is 100% voluntary - the cost is negligible, but the value is immeasurable!

There are no statutes, laws, or ordinances in the United States that mandates anyone vote in any election. However, there are statutes in every state and territory that require elections be held in their jurisdictions for elected officials which have pre-determined statutory limited tenures of office. Election offices in all states and territories of the United States are available to register citizens who desire to vote in any election in that jurisdiction. Political parties, candidates, candidate committees, Political Action Committees, friends of candidates, and politically motivated citizens may support the candidates of their choice. All the above may encourage eligible voters to vote for a candidate of their choice. They can promote candidates by paying for radio and TV ads, they can organize town hall meetings, they can sponsor candidate forums, they can go door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote, they can place campaign signs in their yards, and they can speak to civic groups. However, none of the above can require you to vote for their preferred candidate or require you to vote for any candidate in any election. Period.

The problem we have here is illustrated in an old joke. Someone asks a friend if he/she knows the difference between ignorance and apathy? The friend's response is, No and I don't care.

This is where we are. The voting process is very simple. Register to vote and when election day(s) roll around on the calendar, one finds his/her polling locations and shows up to vote. After the preliminaries of identifying yourself, you are handed a ballot with federal, state, or local candidates for elective office. (Please note that identifying yourself as a US citizen and a registered voter is not a universal requirement in all states.)

Panic ensues. The voter is only aware of two or three candidates they planned to vote for, most likely a president, governor, sheriff, or county commissioner. They look at the ballot and see there are 15-25 offices for which they have an opportunity to vote. Some voters do not know what these offices do and they do not know any of the names on the ballot beyond the ones they planned to vote for. They do not know which candidates are competent and which are deceivers who have no interest in the people that may vote for them.

The voter has two options - Only vote for the candidates and offices they came to vote for or vote every office on the ballot and rejoice that they performed their civic duty as a citizen.

Both options are perfectly legal. However, the latter method cripples the electoral process envisioned in the US Constitution. The US Constitution prescribed a government of, by, and for the people. This simple, yet powerful phrase presupposed that the electorate would be informed and wise when exercising the privilege of casting a ballot for their elected leaders.

The definition of IGNORANCE is immediately on display – ignorant of who they are voting for and ignorant of which positions in government are on the ballot. But it is not displayed to everyone at this moment in time. It is displayed days later to everyone, but secret ballots do not allow anyone to know who the ignorant ones are. They just know by the result. Totally unqualified candidates go on to fill the seats of elected officials that over the next few weeks and months will demonstrate their incompetence to govern.

There is no excuse for not knowing who is on the ballot and which offices the candidates are seeking. Sample ballots are available on the Board of Elections website months ahead of elections. The candidates run ads in newspapers, appear at candidate forums, have websites and generally appear at public events such as parades. Candidates and their surrogates are outside the polling places to greet voters. Some voters see these people as a nuisance and ignore them. Some voters see them as the assistance they need. The candidate’s contact information is available on websites, written campaign materials, and social media. Someone in your family or circle of acquaintances knows who the candidates are and knows something about them.

Some do not realize the gravity of an election ballot. The ballot is one of the most important pieces of paper you will hold in your hand in your life. It is a legal document. Most legal documents require signatures, birthdates, social security numbers, or notary stamps. Ballots require none of these identifying marks, thus they are considered secret choices made known only to the voter. The cumulative choices made by the voters are tallied at the end of the voting period. The majority vote recipient celebrates the win, and the loser lives to try again.

APATHY is difficult to articulate and understand. When someone takes the time to register to vote and then fails to take a few minutes from one day to vote, candidates with an agenda contrary to the people who do not vote often end up in office for two, four, six, or eight years. Those choosing not to vote depend upon those who do so to make a good choice. Unfortunately, those that choose to vote in every election may have an agenda you would not recognize or agree with.

Voter turnout is closely tracked by elections offices. Elections officials use voter turnout to plan for future early voting sites, the number of poll workers required to run the polls, where to identify early voting locations, determine the funding requests to county commissioners to staff the polls, provide funding for voting equipment, such as computers, ballot printers, and vote tallying equipment.

Candidates use the history of voter turnout to determine which office and which election to run in. Off year elections, when the President is not on the ballot have lower turnouts. Lower voter turnouts tend to favor one candidate over another. Candidates adjust their campaign budgets based upon turnout. When the ballots do not have the President, Governor, or Senate race, the turnout is abysmal. This hurts the down ballot races for council of state, state representatives, state senators, NC appeals court judges, NC superior court judges, local judges, county sheriffs, and county commissioners.

Candidates also pay `attention to the age demographics of the voters that vote in every election. Four times as many voters in the 62 -72 age group vote than those in the 18 - 38 age group. This can be confirmed in North Carolina by voting statistics recorded by the John Locke Foundation on the website John Locke Carolina Elections. The Chart below is from the 2026 primary election in North Carolina.

Voter Age Distribution – NC 2026 Primary Elections

This distribution curve may be explained by younger voters who are not registering to vote or if they register, they simply do not see the value in voting. They are either IGNORANT of the power they have or are just APATHETIC and do not see the responsibility they have been granted to shape and direct their future.

Without a doubt the younger generation in the United States is bombarded with liberal broadcasts and social media peppered with the prospect of free stuff like advanced education degrees, free housing, free food, and a myriad of other things that make their journey through life carefree and full of leisure. Reality will hit them hard when they eventually realize there is nothing given free of charge. They will slowly or rapidly sink into despair when they finally determine that nothing is free when the people that have been paying for the things they enjoyed are no longer willing to subsidize their hedonistic lifestyle.

Ancient civilizations of the past have collapsed under the assumption that free means that no one paid for the stuff. Someone did pay for it, but the recipients of the free stuff do not care or understand who that someone is. The someone in most cases is future generations. The economy of the United States is not immune to the hubris that have seen historical nations crumble.

We the people are charged with the responsibility to elect leaders to ensure this does not happen. However, the leaders we have elected over the last 60+ years ignore this future. Why? Because we the people have been derelict in our duty to elect the right people. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The United States Constitution as originally drafted stipulated that US senators would be appointed by the state legislators. State legislators were elected by the people in the individual states. These legislators were held responsible by the voters in each state. They could be removed by the voters in short order if they made bad selections. The seventeenth amendment, ratified in 1913, to the United States Constitution changed the election of senators to a popular vote of the people in each state. This amendment changed the complexion of senatorial elections in each state to a quasi-national election.

When national leaders realized the state leaders no longer controlled the selection of the single most deliberative legislative body in the federal government (the United States Senate), they set about to influence every senatorial election in the country. Massive campaigns from all over the country began to influence senate elections with funding and influence. Select primary election candidates were flooded with funding from outside sources. The candidates realized the senate seat holds real value outside their state and embraced this new source of support and glammed on to it with a vengeance. You can see this in the amount of mail, emails, and text messages you receive from candidates outside of North Carolina. Rest assured voters in every state are receiving mail and emails from the Whatley and Cooper campaigns requesting donations.

When state and federal political parties, which historically allowed primary candidates to fight for voters aligned by common goals and principles, began to encourage voters to align with a particular candidate, the political parties determined they could control the outcome of elections with massive infusions of money for individual campaigns. Advertising dollars poured in supporting a favored candidate that would shape the direction the lobbyist and elite power brokers sought to influence. Foreign entities saw this and poured in funding through dark money Political Action Committees directly connected to the elite’s favored candidate. People that controlled world financial markets understood they could control the United States economy because a large segment of the electorate in the United States is uninformed. Rush Limbaugh coined the phrase, ‘Low Information Voters.’ And with the individual states controlling elections for state and federal candidates, they set a course to undermine the institutions the forefathers set in motion in 1776.

There is a recent election in North Carolina where the powerful political machinations did not work as anticipated. This was the North Carolina state senate primary race which pitted incumbent Phil Berger against Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. Berger is the NC Senate leader and has held that position for many years. He had strong financial backing to the tune of 10 million dollars. Some which he controlled as senate leader. His opponent, Sheriff Page, had just over 1 million dollars. Almost every mailbox in the NC 26 District was filled day after day with printed ads from the Berger camp. The casino lobby heavily financed the Berger campaign. They wanted to build and operate five casinos in North Carolina, with one slated for Rockingham County. Sheriff Page met with supporters, not just in the district, but across the state at every opportunity. Sheriff Page defeated Berger by 123 votes. This is an average of 2.3 votes per district in the 48 precincts in NC Senate District 26.

In 1960, Nakita Khrushchev in a speech to the United Nations declared the USSR would take over the United States without firing a shot. As we look across the US landscape today, we are seeing the embodiment of that speech. States like New York, California, Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota are electing members of congress, governors, and state representatives that openly espouse the demagoguery of fascist and communist teachings. The US Constitution and the principles of capitalism are no longer being taught in public schools and universities as they were after World War II.

The Civil Rights Act was passed by congress in the 1960s finally making the phrase in the US Constitution that all men are created equal a reality that has guided all legislation since. During this same period, the United States Supreme Court determined that killing the unborn was a guaranteed right in the US Constitution. Supreme Court justices are human, thus not infallible. As a deliberative body endowed by the US Constitution to determine which laws enacted by Congress are constitutionally compliant or unconstitutional, they can and do make mistakes. They can also correct mistakes made by previous courts. The recent Supreme Court ruling did not declare killing the unborn to be illegal in the United States. They ruled the federal government has no jurisdiction over this practice and returned the responsibility of this barbarity to the states.

The US Constitution gives the people the right and privilege of voting. It is the responsibility of everyone to accept this responsibility and to use this privilege as the founders envisioned. Register to vote upon reaching the age of majority, become informed of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and vote in every election so long as you are able. Being ignorant or apathetic of your responsibilities as a sovereign citizen of the United States is a terrible way to go through life.

I will close with this. There is a prayer recited at Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Sheriff Sam Page had the courage to change the NC senate leadership. You, as wise voters, can do the same thing Sheriff Page did. All it requires is to know the difference.