Support local election coverage

ELECTION CREW: Xpress team members, from left, Able Allen, Virginia Daffron, Daniel Walton, Molly Horak and Laura Hackett are covering the 2020 elections. Photo by Scott Southwick

Dear reader,

Through the years, you’ve told us you depend on our local election coverage and voter guides to make informed decisions. You pore over candidates’ responses to questions that reflect local concerns and you mark the pages to use as a reference when completing your ballot.

You’ve also let us know how to make our voter guides better: Rather than spacing the content over multiple issues, print all the races together in one convenient package — and make it available by the start of early voting and through Election Day, as well as online.

This year, the stakes feel even higher than usual. With the contest for Asheville City Council taking place for the first time alongside a presidential election, the risk of local issues getting lost in the shuffle has grown. Add in a pandemic, misinformation spreading on social media and questions about the security and validity of election results — clearly, our independent and free local coverage is more important than ever before.

With that in mind, Xpress will produce the all-in-one guide readers have long requested, distributed in the print issue of Wednesday, Oct. 14, the day before early voting begins in Buncombe County. The guide will also be available online the same day.

But to produce that comprehensive guide and secure our ability to continue reporting through and beyond Election Day, we need your support. This year, we’ve been doubling down on our efforts, even as print advertising revenue has fallen almost 60% compared to last year. 

As we scramble to cover the costs of this vital coverage, please pitch in to help us provide voters the information they need from a source they trust. 

If we can raise $9,000 by Wednesday, Oct. 7, you’ll make it possible to distribute thousands of additional standalone voter guides to locations across Buncombe County from Oct. 14 through Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Nearly 1,000 readers have stepped up to support Mountain Xpress since the beginning of the year. Join them — or make an additional gift — at supportmountainx.com to ensure that everyone in our Western North Carolina community can access dependable, fact-based election information.

With gratitude,

The Mountain Xpress election coverage team

Previous Xpress coverage of the 2020 election season is available at the pages linked below:

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Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

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One thought on “Support local election coverage

  1. Enlightened Enigma

    Yes, and thank you for your election coverage.

    Let’s also make sure that the public KNOWS that even though this race is on the ballot, one does NOT have to vote in this race, nor any
    other, especially if the voter is ignorant about the candidates. In Asheville, it is the simple matter of NO qualified candidates running
    who deserve election! None of them are qualified. Avoid the race.

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