An Important Voting Resource Provided by the County
(Updated: Oct. 22, 2024, 7:30 a.m.)
With freedom comes responsibility, and citizens of our country have a civic duty to be informed and to vote. An important concern in our time is how to locate reliable information about candidates, and to determine what their positions are regarding the issues. Digital technologies can provide rapid access to information, however these tools can also be used to create and distribute misinformation.
Fortunately, Cherokee County has developed a comprehensive website that offers a broad range of services. Our community can safely prepare to cast our ballots with this system. The following procedure can be used to navigate to the authentic websites of the political parties.
Specific address information on the internet is referred to as a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL for short. The full URL of the Cherokee County North Carolina website is below.
A critical aspect of any URL, no matter the subject matter, is whether or not the user is securely connected to the online resource.
Figure 1 - A secure connection
A secure connection is indicated by the "https" character string within the URL, as shown in Figure 1. As a general rule, we recommend that users should not visit any website that does not establish a secure connection.
The Cherokee County North Carolina website, referenced above, features a horizontal blue band with embedded links to more detailed information. Titles shown there include Home, About, Online Services and Departments.
Figure 2 - A link to the Board of Elections
Hover your mouse over About, and on the lower left there is a link to the Board of Elections. Please see Figure 2, where an arrow has been added to show the location.
The Board of Elections webpage has a green column on the left hand side, with subject matter headings arranged in rows.
Figure 3 - The Board of Elections page
To find information about the different parties and their respective candidates, users click on the top link “Voter Registration.” This is shown in Figure 3. Scroll down on the next page to find links to all of the 8 parties that are competing in the current election.
Figure 4 shows how the Cherokee County website previews links,
Figure 4 - A preview of an external link
so that users can see the URL before engaging with the external sites. This security feature is activated when the user's mouse hovers over the link, the text of which is then displayed in the lower left corner of the page. Voters can also check the security of the political party sites of their choosing by evaluating each URL.
Figure 5 - Example of political party website.
Citizens can use this process, available at the Board of Elections section of the Cherokee County website, to be confident that they have securely and accurately located information about parties and candidates.
