Get out and vote

Below, you'll find a series of six video clips of the candidates for Asheville City Council talking about the first time they voted. The videos were shot about a week ago at the Asheville Citizen-Times and edited by multimedia guy Doug Mayer. There are six clips in production, with the candidates telling us why they think it's important to vote.

The newspaper produced these clips as a public service to help encourage people to get out and vote. As you know, we had a horribly low turnout of 13 percent in the election primary.

Some stats from the primary:
- Only 577 voters were African-American, a number representing 7.5 percent of the vote. African-Americans make up about 18 percent of the city’s population. There are 6,773 African-Americans registered to vote in Asheville.
- Only 23 people reporting themselves as Hispanic voted.
- Only 203 people ages 18-25 showed up to vote. In that age range, 6,386 people are registered, according to state data.
- No polling site reflected both race and age diversity.
- The 376 voters at Roberson High were among the least diverse. Ninety-eight percent were white. Ninety-three percent were 41 or older.
-A comparable primary election in 2003 brought 16 percent of registered voters to the polls, said Board of Elections director Trena Parker.

The bottom line - we want you to vote. You can vote now, at the board of elections office in Asheville downtown. You can vote on Nov. 6. You can vote for up to three council candidates, and you can vote on the question of whether or not you want council elections to be partisan or non-partisan. If you don't live in Asheville, check with your local elections board office to find out who is on the ballot, and what referendums might be up for a decision.

Vote.