The more attention that's coming out of the trials and hearings, the more legislators are saying we need to take a look at this and fix some of these problems.

The races for the N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals are the only statewide contests on the ballot this year, so it's key that voters across North Carolina have the facts on these candidates. The State Judicial Voter Guide does just that.

Our research shows that the number-one reason why qualified voters don't go to the polls on Election Day is not that they don't care, but that folks simply don't know enough about the candidates. The State Judicial Voter Guide goes a long way to empower voters with the facts they need to cast a confident ballot.

There are judges at all levels who may face a situation where there is a potential conflict of interest, either a situation where an attorney presenting a case before them has given a large sum of money or where the judge, as a candidate, has made statements implying favor or bias for one side of a case over the other. Many judges will remove themselves from a case if a conflict is apparent, but there are no official standards. A conflict that one judge might step aside for, another judge might not see as a problem. Rather than a standard set of guidelines for everyone to use it really is, forgive the pun, a judgment call.

For a year now, the community has been saying 'It's coming, it's coming,' ... With all the attention centered on the presence of the debate, very few people have stopped to consider what will happen when it's gone.

I'm saying look, here they come, pay attention. Let your eyes transform what appears ordinary, commonplace, into what it is, a moment in time, an observed fragment of eternity.