Charlotte 2009 mayor and city council election candidates

Tuesday's Election Day and research ahead of time should be easy for voters in Merry Oaks and many parts of central and East Charlotte.

Essentially, voters in those areas have only two races to study: mayor and city council at large.

You're choosing one of two candidates for mayor and four out of nine candidates for at–large city council.

Most people in central to East Charlotte live in city council districts 1 or 5, and your races have been decided in the primary. See the map of city council districts above to confirm that.

Same goes for most of you for school board: District 4 representative Tom Tate is unopposed. His district covers most of central and East Charlotte. If you're not sure whether you're in Tate's school board district, you can check the links below to confirm.

Consider yourself lucky, and skip to The Hard Part below.

If you live southwest of Monroe Road, you possibly are in School Board District 5, which has a competitive race between two candidates, Eric Davis and Susan Walker. Their websites are listed below, when available from the Board of Elections website.

If you live in Noda or north and east of that area, you could be in School Board District 3, which has nine candidates running for school board. Their websites are listed below, when available from the Board of Elections website.

If you're elsewhere in the city, go to the Candidate Handbook part of the Mecklenburg Board of Elections website and click on county commission/school board districts to determine your school district on a map, or go to "View my Sample Ballot" at the Board of Elections website. (If you're in Davidson, just check out the voter guide from Davidsonnews.net)

Just to be clear: Your districts for city council and school board are not the same. School board covers the whole county, and the city does not.

If you choose to view your sample ballot, be aware that it will show you information about races that are NOT necessarily on this election's ballot. Just focus on mayor, school board and city council, and you'll be covered.

The hard part
A ton of information is available online. But once you've done your research, voting will likely take less than five minutes.
Your choices:

• Go directly to the candidates' websites, when available. A list is below for candidates in central and East Charlotte, with links when listed at the Board of Elections site.
  
• Go to CharMeckVotes, a site put together by Kids Voting, Generation Engage and the League of Women Voters.
  
• Go to The Charlotte Observer's politics page, which has links to online issues grids to evaluate each candidate through searches.
  
• Check out video virtual town halls with the mayoral candidates through links at CLTBlog.
  

Candidates' sites:

Mayor
(Pick one)
Anthony Foxx
John Lasssiter


City Council at large
(Pick four)
Susan Burgess
Patrick Cannon
David Howard
Darrin L. Rankin
C. Travis Wheat
Tariq Scott Bokhari
Edwin B. Peacock III
Jaye Rao
Matthew Ridenhour

School board District 5
(If you live southwest of Monroe Road)
(Pick one)
Eric C. Davis
Susan Walker


School board District 3
(If you live in Noda or points north and east)
(Pick one)
Nicole E. Hudson
Joel Levy
Vivian C. Mitchell
Hans Peter Plotseneder
Aaron J. Pomis
James Ross II
Teresa Tudor
Joyce Waddell
W.L. (Pop) Woodard