By Mickey Hutchings
In campus news, The Appalachian reports that App State campus dining closures have led to almost 60 student employee layoffs. McAlister’s Deli in the student union, Central Dining Hall and the Wired Scholar in the library have been closed since October 6th. Part-time student employees were laid off, but full-time campus dining employees have been reassigned to other roles according to Chancellor Sheri Everts. Students who were laid off prior to the closures told The Appalachian that their terminations were due to lack of funds. Despite the closures, the new food trucks on Sanford Mall, that have been brought to campus to make dining safer during the pandemic, are still open.
Locally, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ husband made a campaign stop in Boone Monday. Douglas Emhoff encouraged the attendees of the campaign event at Booneshine Brewery to vote early. Emhoff almost remarked that president Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US is the, quote, “most epic failure in the history of our country.” He said that if Democrats Joe Biden and Harris are elected, stricter COVID-19 measures will be put in place. According to polls from FiveThirtyEight, Biden is leading Trump in the polls by 2.5 points in North Carolina.
In national news, battleground states, like North Carolina, are leading in early voting turnout. According to the New York Times, more than 64 million Americans have casted their ballots in the 2020 election so far. More than half of those votes have been made in nearly 12 competitive states, including Texas, Florida and Georgia. Early voting in Watauga County is still happening until October 31st. The Appalachian reports that young people are turning out in record numbers in the county, and as of Sunday, nearly 23% of votes counted so far in Watauga are from voters age 18 to 23. County residents can vote and register same-day at any of the six early voting sites until the end of the month. The deadline to request an absentee ballot in North Carolina is today at 5 PM. To learn more about voting this year, visit the North Carolina Board of Elections website at NCSBE.gov.