The proud, the few, the voters in the Greensboro City Council election finally have the opportunity to cast their ballots.

Early voting in the Tuesday, July 26 City Council election, originally scheduled for Nov. 2, 2021, opened at 8 a.m. on Thursday, July 7 at six locations in Greensboro and ends on July 23.  The complete schedule for early voting times and locations can be found here: Early Voting.

Voter turnout in this election is expected to be extremely light and reports from the early voting locations indicate extremely light may be an understatement.  A poll worker said that Thursday morning at the early voting location they were working, a grand total of three voters, showed up Thursday before noon.

The first and last day of early voting usually have the heaviest turnout.

Those who do choose to vote will be able to vote for mayor, three at-large city councilmembers and the city councilmember for their district.

Also on the ballot are five bond referendums.  Usually there is a major marketing campaign to push bond referendums, but these city bond referendums have received little publicity either for or against.

The bonds at the end of the ballot are:

Greensboro City Housing Bonds – $30 million

Greensboro City Parks and Recreation Bonds – $70 million

Greensboro City Firefighting Bonds – $14 million

Greensboro City Law Enforcement Facilities Bonds – $6 million

Greensboro City Transportation Bonds – $15 million

The $70 million in Parks and Recreation Bonds are unusual in that the City Council has stated its intention is to spend $50 million of the $70 million in bond money on combining the Windsor Recreation Center and the Vance Chavis branch library into one facility.  The estimated cost of that facility in 2021 when the City Council voted to place the bonds on the ballot was $70 million.  With inflation and the increase in construction costs that estimate has to be considered outdated.