RALEIGH, N.C.  – Gov. Beverly Perdue has appointed a District Court judge to serve out the term of retiring District Attorney Howard Boney for three eastern North Carolina counties.

Perdue said Wednesday that Judge Robert Evans will become the top prosecutor for Nash, Wilson and Edgecombe counties starting Friday. Boney has held the job for more than 30 years.

Evans will serve-out Boney’s four-year term and could seek re-election next year.

The NAACP praised his appointment, noting that Evans will become one of only two blacks serving as district attorneys in the state.

Evans practiced law for 22 years in Rocky Mount before he was appointed to the bench in 1999. He attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – Sales taxes or vehicle registration fees could be raised in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties to pay for public transportation projects in legislation that cleared a House panel.
 
The bill approved Wednesday by the House Transportation Committee would allow halfpenny sales-tax increases in five urban counties and quarter-cent increases in 94 other counties if approved by local voters. Mecklenburg County already has an extra half-cent on the sales tax for transportation and couldn’t raise it further.
 
Proceeds could be used as matching money for a proposed state fund for public transit grants. The bill is supported by environmental and transportation advocates as a way to reduce congestion.

The measure has a long way to go. It next goes to the House Finance Committee.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The long waits that plagued early voting in North Carolina haven’t turned up on Election Day.

Several counties reported some lines of a few dozen people when polls opened Tuesday morning. But they quickly abated as sites processed those pre-workday voters. North Carolina’s largest counties reported little or no waits at polling sites throughout much of the day, and some precincts only had a trickle of voters coming to cast a ballot.

The overwhelming turnout that sustained through the early voting period that ended Saturday processed some 2.6 million voters. Because of that, elections officials expected about 2 million people to vote Tuesday.

State Board of Elections director Gary Bartlett now says the turnout will fall below his earlier guess.