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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT
WHQR will host and broadcast four candidate forums as part of the 2012 Election Season in the MC Erny Gallery, 254 N. Front Street, #300.Each forum will feature two local journalists asking prepared questions during the first half of the event. The second portion will be dedicated to questions from voters. A live studio audience will be invited to ask questions during this segment. We'll also use questions sent in from listeners.If you have a question for the candidates, please email us (newsdirector@whqr.org) or submit via Twitter with the #whqrforums hash tag and tell us which slate of candidates you'd like to address. We reserve the right to edit the questions for clarity, brevity, and objectivity. Each question must be addressed to all candidates in a particular race. If you can't attend the live event, Tweet along while you tune in or listen or watch the webcast online at 7 PM each night to hear the candidates! (WWAY will also broadcast the forums live on Time Warner Cable. RTV is channel 106, on ATMC, channel 903, on Charter Cable, channel 145 and over-the-air at 3.2.)Tuesday, Oct. 2, 7 PM- New Hanover County CommissionersJonathan Barfield (Current Vice Chairman)Beth DawsonRobert MurrayDr. Derrick HickeyWoody WhiteRob Zapple Thursday, Oct. 4, 7 PM- NC House District 18Representative Susi Hamilton (D)Louis Harmati (R) Monday, Oct. 8, 7 PM - NC Senate District 9Senator Thom Goolsby (R)Deb Butler (D) Thursday, Oct. 18, 7 PM - NC House District 19 & NC House District 20 NC House District 19Ted Davis, Jr. (Current NHC Commission Chair)Emilie Swearingen (Current Kure Beach Councilwoman)NC House District 20Rick Catlin (Current NHC Commissioner) (R)Tom Gale (D)

NC Senate District 9 candidates toe party line over voter ID

During last night’s North Carolina Senate District 9 Forum at the WHQR Gallery, panelist Jon Evans of WECT asked candidates if they would resurrect the voter ID bill vetoed last year by Governor Bev Perdue. WHQR’s Sara Wood reports incumbent Republican Thom Goolsby and Democratic candidate Deb Butler passionately disagreed while toeing the party lines.

“So ironic to me, Jon that the day the governor vetoed that bill, she had a party at the governor’s mansion that night. And do you know what you had to have to get into the governor’s mansion, to her party the day she vetoed the bill? A photo ID. How amazing.” 

Senator Goolsby quoted a recent poll claiming 75 percent of all Americans, despite race or economic background would support a voter ID requirement. He says the issue is no laughing matter.

“Now, my opponent will say what’s the big deal, it doesn’t really matter? Well you know, most people who get on a plane, Ms. Butler, aren’t terrorists. But we actually want to make sure that the people who get on the plane are law-abiding citizens who aren’t carrying weapons or bombs.” 

“No Thom, but what is funny is you talk about wasteful spending, and you want to implement a program that costs millions of dollars that we do not have. You have to spend money to have voter ID checked.” 

Butler calls voter fraud a fictional buzzword, designed to disenfranchise voters.

“One case of our 4.5 million voters, it is statistically insignificant and it’s designed to inflame people, and that’s all it is. When you can show me some statistics that warrant the dollars spent, we’ll talk about it. But until that time, it’s a fiction and it’s a ruse, and you know that.” 

Voter ID is a contentious topic this election year, as republicans push for its implementation in battleground states. Democrats say the laws would prevent minority and low-income voters from going to the polls.