Reprint from The Greensboro News & Record, October 12, 2025

Dear Greensboro voters:

You had important decisions to make in a pivotal primary on Oct. 7. And yet most of you chose to stay home.

Faced with an election that will have lasting implications at a critical moment in the city’s history, you responded with a yawn and a shrug.

Barely more than 10% of the city’s registered voters bothered to turn out. That means (let’s see, hold on while I get a calculator) nearly 90% of you didn’t.

More specifically, that’s 22,251 out of 210,900 eligible voters (10.55%). In other words, an embarrassment and a disappointment.

You had a deep, qualified field of 29 mayoral and City Council candidates from which to pick and you would not make the effort.

You could have voted early. But you didn’t.

You could have voted on Election Day, Oct. 7. But you didn’t.

And so, 90% of you did something else, which I hope was more important.

I know. Turnouts for council elections are notoriously sparse, and council primaries tend to be even sparser.

But, like Linus in his eternal vigil for the Great Pumpkin, I had dared to hope that this time would be different. And like Linus, I’m still waiting.

Despite the certainty of new faces, with at least four new council members guaranteed, you stayed home.

Despite new opportunities for the city — the excitement and promise of the new Toyota battery plant and the JetZero and Boom Supersonic announcements, among others — you stayed home.

Despite lingering problems that cry out for overdue solutions — the stubborn challenges of homelessness and poverty and a severe housing shortage — you stayed home.

Despite your eternal moaning and groaning about leaf collection, zoning decisions and redlight cameras and speeding motorists in loud cars, you stayed home.

Despite the current council’s ineffectiveness on balanced development in the east and west and its cowardice in allowing toxic soil to remain under a local park), you called in sick.

And despite the fact that, yes, if Donald Trump decided to deploy National Guard troops to Greensboro, that would be a federal, state and City Council issue, you couldn’t find the time. (Don’t think it could happen? The Fraternal Order of Police in Charlotte has asked Trump to send troops to that city because of what it alleges is “the ongoing failure of city and police leadership to address the severe staffing crisis within the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, which we believe has led to a violence crisis in Charlotte.”)

The good news is you have a second chance.

Now that the field has been narrowed, you can vote in the Nov. 4 general election. Early voting begins Thursday.

The ballot is still strong and competitive from top to bottom, with sitting Mayor Pro Tem Marikay Abuzuaiter (8,563 votes in the primary) and former Mayor Robbie Perkins (6,976 votes) squaring off in November.

The at-large race features six well-qualified finalists in a field led by incumbent Hugh Holston (8,714 votes in the primary), followed by former City Manager Denise Turner Roth (7,841) Greensboro Sports Foundation President and CEO Richard Beard (7,598), incumbent Jamilla Pinder (6.569) and community organizer Irving Allen (6,064 votes).

Current school board member and former council member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small holds the sixth spot, pending a recount requested by tech start-up strategy adviser Carla Franklin, who trailed Bellamy-Small by only 51 votes, 5,159 to 5,108.

That only goes to show you the difference your vote can make. Races have been won by as few as eight votes in Greensboro (Florence Gatten over Bob Skenes in District 4 in 2003, earning her the nickname “Landslide”).

There are also five contested district races in which District 3 was especially close with incumbent Zack Matheny leading challenger April Parker 3,529-3,379.

But any race could shift dramatically depending on turnout in the general election.

Which is up to you.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Although Donald Trump may be a ubiquitous presence in our national headlines and our heads, your mayor and City Council members are closer and more accountable to you on the issues that affect your day-to-day life.

You can have a say about who they are. Or not.

But if you don’t vote, please do not complain to me over the next four years about city government.

With all due respect, take it somewhere else. I don’t want to hear it.

Source: https://greensboro.com/opinion/column/article_ae4f0b74-8054-4bff-b121-650bcaf667ab.html