Watauga County Board of Elections to Conduct Pre-Election Testing of Voting Machines

September 18, 2024 The Watauga County Board of Elections will be conducting the pre-election testing of all voting machines starting on September 19, 2024. The testing process is open for public observation; due to limited space we ask that you schedule an appointment. Please call the office at ((828)265-8061 to reserve a time to observe the pre-election testing. County boards of elections are required by state election law to conduct a pre-election test, also known as Logic and Accuracy (L&A), of all voting systems to be used in each election.

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State Employees Can Use Their Balance of Community Service Leave to Serve as Nonpartisan Poll Workers for Upcoming Election

September 18, 2024 State employees can use their balance of Community Service Leave — up to three days (24 hours) of paid time off — to volunteer with their County Board of Elections as nonpartisan poll workers during this fall’s election, the Office of State Human Resources announced today. “State employees are the backbone of North Carolina and we’re so grateful that they always step up to help when we need them,” said OSHR Director Barbara Gibson. “We hope the ability to use Community Service Leave for nonpartisan poll work encourages more state employees to serve with their local Board of Elections this year.”

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Local Ballot Includes Five County, Four Judicial, One State Senate, One State House Seats and Two Referendums

September 17, 2024 The 2024 General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 5. Polls will open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. According to the State Board of Elections, any voter in line at a polling place to vote after 7:30 p.m. may still vote.In addition to National and North Carolina statewide elections, Avery County voters can cast ballots in three county elections, including for three County Commission seats, Register of Deeds, and Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor, as well as in six district elections, including for four Judicial seats, one State Senate seat, one State House seat, and one Town of Newland Referendum, the latter of which only registered voters who live within the town’s limits may vote. By Tim Gardner

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CISA & FBI Public Service Announcement – False Claims Of Hacking Voter Information

September 13, 2024 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are issuing this announcement to raise awareness of attempts to undermine public confidence in the security of U.S. election infrastructure through the spread of disinformation falsely claiming that cyberattacks compromised U.S. voter registration databases.

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Outsmart the Scammers: Cybersecurity and Fraud Awareness Panel Discussion Sept. 18

September 11, 2024 Incidents of fraud are on the rise, and scammers’ tactics are becoming more complex. No one is immune! That’s why it’s important to educate yourself about fraud.   Learn important strategies to help protect yourself and the ones you love. We’ll share: How to spot red flags that may indicate a fraudulent encounter. Where to turn in the event you or a loved one is targeted. Steps you can take to help protect yourself and your loved ones. Panel will include Boone Police Department, Watauga Sheriff’s Department, and External Financial Fraud Investigator Tommy Crosby

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As New Ballots Are Printed, Absentee Voting on Hold in North Carolina for Next Couple of Weeks

September 11, 2024 County boards of elections in North Carolina are now working to design and print new ballots for the 2024 general election without the We The People Party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates on them, following a state court decision. The N.C. Supreme Court, in a 4–3 ruling late Monday, required election officials to remove the We The People party line from the presidential contest on the ballot, including the party’s presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and vice-presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan. County boards of elections were prepared to send ballots to voters late last week, which is the state law deadline to begin absentee voting. With the court decision, revised ballots will now be printed and delivered to eligible voters who have requested an absentee ballot as soon as they are available, which is expected to occur in the next couple weeks.

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Judge Denies Request to Remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from NC Ballot, Pauses Sending of Ballots Until Noon Friday for Possible Appeal

September 9, 2024 Raleigh, NC – A Wake County Superior Court on Thursday denied a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove his name from North Carolina ballots and reprint ballots without his name. The court also issued a pause on sending out absentee ballots until noon Friday to allow an opportunity for appeal. This means the 100 county boards of elections will not send absentee ballots on Friday morning as scheduled to eligible voters who requested them for the 2024 general election. Instead, unless the NC Court of Appeals orders otherwise, county boards will begin sending ballots out Friday afternoon. Sept. 6 is the deadline for absentee ballot distribution under state law. 

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Watauga Rescue Squad Unveils Monument Honoring the Memory of Two Former Community Heroes

September 3, 2024 “Grief does not have an expiration date.” Those words were aptly spoken by the Rev. Brad Hinton during a memorial service in Boone on  Thursday evening, Aug. 29, honoring the late Travis Gryder and Randy Collins, two community servants whose lives ended way too soon. Nearly 100 people came together for the unveiling of a permanent marker dedicated to the duo who were faithful members of Watauga County Rescue Squad. The impressive ceremony held at the squad headquarters in Boone, and hosted by their comrades, highlighted not only the accomplishments of the two men within the organization, but also paid tribute to the impact that each had on the community, in general. By Sherrie Norris

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Town of Boone Awarded the Accessible Parks Grant; Will Go to Rivers House Project

September 3, 2024 The Town of Boone was recently awarded $250,000 from the Accessible Parks Grant Program through the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation.. With this award, the Town will renovate the detached garage of the Rivers House into publicly accessible ADA-compliant restrooms. The Town has also committed $50,000 of local funds toward this project. The Rivers House and the Rivers House Park, located at 150 Clay House Drive, were willed to the Town of Boone by Ms. Rachel Rivers-Coffey, a prominent member of the Boone Community.

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eCourts Expanding to Avery, Watauga, and Ashe Counties in 2025

September 2, 2024 The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) has announced plans to complete the eCourts expansion to trial courts across all of its 100 counties in 2025. The eCourts Portal application provides the public with no-cost access to digital court and other public records online anytime instead of limiting access to in-person visits during business hours to obtain paper files. eCourts currently serves approximately half of North Carolina’s population in its three largest cities (Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro) and 38 counties across the coastal, piedmont, and mountain regions that have already had their eCourts systems implemented.

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Gregg Bergstrom Removed from Planning Board by 4-1 Vote During Special Called Blowing Rock Town Council Meeting

August 28, 2024 On Thursday, August 22, Mayor Charlie Sellers called for a special meeting of the Blowing Rock Town Council. The meeting took place on August 26, 2024 at 5:00 p.m., which adhered to the town’s bylaws requirement that a special called meeting be scheduled and announced at least 48 hours in advance. The meeting topic was a discussion of the Blowing Rock Planning Board’s membership. “I am very concerned with the conversations going on in town,” Sellers said prior to the meeting. “We have a planning board that is not functioning in the way it should be. Gregg Bergstrom has made comments that the mayor and town council have not been transparent,” Sellers said. “Calling the meeting was a decision I had to make.” Sellers opened the meeting by stating, “This is special meeting that I called. We should all act in a professional manner. Some people can’t do that.”

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Local Historian. Terry L. Harmon Releases Long-Awaited Chronicle of The Durham Family Murders

August 27, 2024 After years of speculation, research, interviews and more, local historian, Terry L. Harmon, is pleased to announce that his long-awaited book about the Durham family murders is now available. Released on August 17, 2024, CONVOLUTED: The 1972 Durham Family Triple Homicide is currently available only on Amazon and is quickly gaining momentum among High Country residents who have been captivated for years by the horrific crime occurring in Boone’s backyard. Harmon’s indepth research comes alive on 581 pages of the paperback book, with many pictures and personal accounts and memories of those closest to the situation helping to tell the story. By Sherrie Norris

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Rising Wholesale Power Cost Leads to 1 1/2 Percent Increase: Average Member will See Additional $2 Monthly Starting in October

August 22, 2024 Rising wholesale power and materials costs are driving the need for a rate adjustment that will impact the average member bill by 1 ½ percent, or $2 for the typical member using 1,000 kWh monthly, effective in October. Blue Ridge Energy’s Board of Directors approved the adjustment after conducting a cost-of-service study reviewing the impact of wholesale power and other cost increases. Explaining the need for the rate adjustment, Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson said: “In the past few years, the cost of wholesale power has increased by 12 percent, which equates to a financial impact in the millions for the cooperative.”

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NC State Board of Elections Recognizes Justice For All as Official Political Party in NC

August 22, 2024 The State Board of Elections on Tuesday recognized the Justice For All Party as an official political party in the state. The decision came in response to a court order. Recognition of Justice for All means voters now have nine choices of party affiliation when registering to vote or updating an existing registration. Voters may register with the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Justice For All, Libertarian, No Labels, Republican, or We The People parties, or they can register as unaffiliated.

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Half of $1 Billion Raised by N.C. Education Lottery Goes to Help Build and Repair Public Schools

August 15, 2024 For the second year in a row,the N.C. Education Lottery raised more than $1 billion in a single year with more than half going to help counties build and repair public schools. The financial help to North Carolina counties results from record earnings for education from lottery ticket sales in fiscal year 2024.  At the end of the fiscal year, based on final but unaudited results, the lottery set new records for both sales and the amount of money raised for education, including record sales of $5.4 billion and record amount of $1.09 billion raised for education

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NC State Board of Elections Approves 12 Additional IDs for Voting in 2024

August 15, 2024 The State Board of Elections has approved 12 additional student and government employee identification cards to be used for voting purposes in North Carolina for the 2024 general election. The newly approved IDs, listed in this story, are in addition to the more than 120 student and employee IDs already approved for voting purposes in 2024. The full list of acceptable IDs for voting in North Carolina is available at BringItNC.gov.

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Blowing Rock’s Annual “State of the Town” Event is Thursday, August 15th at 5:30 p.m.

August 14, 2024 The Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce’s Community and Government Committee in partnership with the Town of Blowing Rock invite all residents and business owners to attend the annual State of the Town event Thursday, August 15th  at 5:30 pm at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) in the Community Meeting Room.  The event will be recorded for anyone who cannot attend. The link to the You Tube video can be found on the Chamber’s website www.LoveBlowingRock.com or the Town of Blowing Rock’s website www.TownofBlowingRock.com 

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Avery County to have Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on Saturday, August 17

August 14, 2024 The Avery County Solid Waste Department will hold a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on Saturday, August 17 from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on the Agricultural Fairgrounds at 661 Vale Road in Newland. This annual event is for Avery residents only and is considered one in which they can help protect the environment by properly disposing of household hazardous waste items. All individuals using the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day service are asked to have a picture identification (ID) of some sort to show the solid waste attendants on duty to verify that they are Avery County residents.. By Tim Gardner

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NFIB SURVEY: Inflation Continues to Plague Main Street as Number One Operating Issue for Small Business Owners in July

August 14, 2024 NFIB State Director Gregg Thompson says NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index for July underscores the challenges facing North Carolina’s Main Street businesses. “Small business owners are a persistent bunch, and they’re determined to keep the doors open, but this unrelenting inflation is pushing them to the limit,” Thompson said. “Inflation drives up the cost of everything, including labor, and that inevitably leads to higher prices that affect customers.” The Small Business Optimism Index rose 2.2 points in July to 93.7, the highest reading since February 2022.

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The North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe, and Secure Elections Comes to Boone August 21st

August 8, 2024 On Wednesday, August 21st The North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections will host the next town hall of the 2024 election cycle in Boone, NC. This event is part of a series that will feature dozens of events across the state to address public concerns around voting in North Carolina and to strengthen civil discourse. This event will be hosted at Appalachian State University in the Parkway Ballroom at the Plemmons Student Union from 6:30-8:00 PM. It will be moderated by Retired Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr. The panel will also feature Watauga County’s Elections Director, Matt Snyder, as well as Board of Elections Member Leta Councill from Watauga County, Carolyn Bunker from Guilford County, and former member of the Watauga County Board of Elections, Four Eggers.

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Avery Board of Commissioners Approve Establishment of Domestic Violence Facility

August 5, 2024 The highlight of the August 5 regular monthly meeting of the Avery Board of Commissioners was approving the establishment of a facility to house domestic violence victims. The commissioners held a public hearing during the meeting to solicit public input about an amendment to the Community Development Block Grant Neighborhood Revitalization Grant, which changes the scope of the project from the construction of a reentry housing facility to the establishment of a domestic violence home. By Tim Gardner

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Avery Jury Upholds Conviction of William Barthel for Disrupting Avery Board of Commissioners Meeting and Resisting a Public Officer

August 5, 2024 On Thursday, August 1, a jury found William J. Barthel guilty in Avery County Superior Court for one count each of Disruption of an Official Meeting and Resisting a Public Officer concerning his conduct during a regular monthly meeting of the county’s Board of Commissioners on January 16. As the county commissioners began the meeting’s public comment segment, Barthel was in the back of their board boom in the County Administration Building in Newland with a vinyl banner that included an image of Assistant County Manager and Clerk to the Board of Commissioners Cindy Huffman Turbyfill and vulgar language.. By Tim Gardner

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