The town of Chapel Hill will hold a public hearing on their proposed Voter-Owned Elections program for local elections Wednesday, May 14 at 7pm..

Under the proposal, candidates running for town council and mayor would be able to receive a publicly-funded campaign financing grant if they collected a threshold of small dollar contributions and agreed to strict spending and fundraising limits.

If you are a resident of Chapel Hill or Orange County, please come to the public hearing and speak out in support of the Voter-Owned Elections initiative.

Click here for an email announcement of the hearing.

Click here for talking points on the proposal.

Click here to view the VOE proposal.

The Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals resoundingly affirmed the constitutionality of North Carolina’s judicial campaign public financing program today. .

In unambiguous terms the Fourth Circuit has found that North Carolina’s judicial public financing program is constitutional and consistent with the First Amendment protection of free speech

This is a huge victory for the campaign finance reform movement and should invigorate reform efforts throughout the country.

Click here to read NCVCE's Press Release.

Click here to view text of the ruling.

Click here more background information about the history of the case.

The overwhelming majority of eligible Council of State candidates are signing up to use the state’s new public campaign financing program which allows grassroots candidates to run for office special-interest free.

But to qualify for the program candidates have to meet a rigorous threshold of more than 750 small dollar contributions from voters throughout the state.

With just a $10 contribution you can help these candidates qualify to become 'Voter-Owned candidates.'

Click here for more information on supporting these candidates.

Click here for the campaign addresses of the candidates who have signed up to use the program.

Click here for talking points you can use to write a Letter to the Editor in support of the new program.

Nine of 11 candidates running for State Auditor, Commissioner of Insurance, and Superintendent of Public Instruction have signed up to use the state's new Voter-Owned Elections program and are praising it as beneficial for both candidates and voters.

On Wednesday April 2, these candidates joined the reform coalition NC Voters for Clean Elections to hold a press conference on why they were choosing to use the new program.

Click here to view the press release

Click here to see the candidates (judicial and Council of State) who have declared their intent to participate in Voter-Owned Elections.

Click here for information on how to help candidates qualify for the program.

In a letter released today, NC Voters for Clean Elections and partners applaud gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for proposing a new program to fund gubernatorial campaigns.

The letter calls upon the other Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates to issue their own plan, and urges Perdue and Moore to continue to develop their proposals with input from the coalition.

Click here to view the letter

Click here to view Lt. Gov. Perdue's Endowment for Gubernatorial Campaigns Proposal.
NOTE: NCVCE does not endorse either campaign proposal, but merely provides it here for reference.

The most recent HK on J Legislative Scorecard emphasizes the importance of campaign finance reform!

Their scorecard includes both the Council of State Voter-Owned Elections bill and the Chapel Hill authorization bill in its twelve vote assessment of General Assembly members.

Click here to view the HK on J Scorecard

Click here to see the General Assembly's overall grade on Election Reform

Click here to view the NC Voters for Clean Elections Scorecard, which evaluates all of the campaign finance reform votes of 2007.

Our '2007 Scorecard on Campaign Reform,' has been released! It highlights both the money-in-politics scandals and reforms of this past year.

See which state legislators supported 'Voter-Owned Elections' reform legislation this year.

Click here to view the 2007 Scorecard

CLick here to read the press release

The NC General Assembly has approved a bill (HB-1517) which would establish a campaign public financing program for some North Carolina Council of State offices. Under the legislation the public financing option would be available to candidates running for Commissioner of Insurance, State Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2008. The bill will likely be signed by the governor sometime in the next few weeks.

This is the first time a campaign public financing bill has been enacted by the General Assembly since the passage of judicial campaign public financing in 2002.

This victory would not have been possible without the steadfast and tireless work of this coalition. Our sincerest thanks goes out to all of our partners.

Read the full release here For more information about how participating in the program click here

Continue to support the money in politics reform movement by renewing your organizational membership with NCVCE. Membership entitles you to:

• Campaign donations research about your organization's issues

• Grassroots events and trainings related to campaign finance reform

• The latest information about campaign finance reform legislative action, including scorecards and upcoming legislation

• And more... Click here to learn about the full range benefits that comes from joining our coalition.