Give Clay Aiken credit for taking a stand, although not for where he took it. The Triangle-area (more about that below) pop singer stood up, if intemperately, for his belief in a diverse Wake County Public School System by voting in North Raleigh at the October school board elections and, afterwards, by publicly disparaging the insurgent winners.
Celebrities tend to avoid local political controversies, so Aiken's involvement was notable, even if his name-calling was not, as he's acknowledged. The larger issue concerns his voting place. Although his mother lives in North Raleigh, Aiken has built a house in Chatham County - and that, the Wake Board of Elections decided after hearing a Republican-backed challenge, is where he really lives and should vote - not in Wake.
The parties involved seem satisfied with the low-key, no-penalty resolution of the case. Certainly Aiken's one vote didn't swing the election, but it's vital that people vote where they live, and that systems be put in place to avoid any possibility of voters casting ballots in two different precincts.
