What's at stake in this gubernatorial election? Early voting and Voter ID. Just yesterday, Speaker Thom Tillis said that if Pat McCrory is elected governor, "we will have voter ID in North Carolina." Thanks to Gov. Bev Perdue we stopped voter ID and the only way to totally defeat it will be the election of Walter Dalton. The issue at hand is not voting fraud, but making it harder to vote.

In that same vein, early voting is at stake this year. Did you know that the party that controls the governor's mansion controls all 100 county boards of elections? That's right. Despite how a county votes for governor, it's the governor's party that controls local elections boards. Why is that important? Simply put: early voting is at stake as Republicans will be sure to limit early voting to the best of their ability. Especially in counties like Orange County.