Letter:I've painstakingly researched candidates in order to vote absentee, spending an entire afternoon wading through Web sites. That is, until I got to the last category and found there is nothing out there about people running for Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor.

Letter:Desperate times call for desperate measures. Apparently in Republican circles, they call for personal smears, making me wonder whether the party of "family values" believes only in the value of the end justifying the means.

Letter:Barack Obama is a fascinating presidential candidate, one whose fine qualities place him among a new generation of African-American politicians, those apparently leaving racism behind. His candidacy, however, has serious problems.

Letter:Letters to editor of the Editorial Page.

Letter:What is it about October? Black Monday was Oct. 14, 1987. Black Thursday was Oct. 24, 1929. This will go down as Red October, with the precipitous stock market drop this month.

Letter:Your Oct. 8 article on the second presidential debate did not mention Sen. John McCain's response to the question of how he would save Social Security.

Letter:To my surprise, I found myself reading Charles Krauthammer's entire Oct. 3 column and agreeing with parts of it. In my opinion, Barack Obama does display both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament.

Letter:The writer of the Oct. 9 People's Forum letter captioned "Big break" wonders why the wealthy and corporations deserve a tax break. Maybe it's because they pay the vast majority of the taxes.

Letter:Did I read a letter to the editor where someone did a "fact check" on the comic strip "Mallard Fillmore"?

Letter:Crude oil prices have plummeted to $83 per barrel. When the per-barrel prices rose, so did the price at the pump, yet the reverse is not happening.

Letter:Bruce Lightner's appeal (Point of View article, Oct. 10) to North Carolina's undecided voters on behalf of Barack Obama was clearly trumped by the Charles Krauthammer column on that same day that examined the radical associations of the senator.

Letter:Is it possible for John McCain and/or Sarah Palin to speak or debate without repeating the contentions about their opponents that have been repeatedly demonstrated to be false?

Letter:If the past is any guide, it seems that the current drive to purge voter rolls, as reported in the Oct. 9 article "Voter purges appear illegal," is driven, in part, by alarmist claims of widespread voter fraud.

Letter:The partisan preferences of The N&O are well known and expected. Endorsing seven Democrats and two Republicans for Wake County seats in the state House is par for the historical course.

Letter:As mentioned in your Oct. 9 Election 2008 column, Elizabeth Dole's campaign sent out thousands of mailers claiming that Kay Hagan met with a group of atheists. The mailer refers to them as "the most vile, radical liberals in America."

Letter:I quit watching the debate Tuesday night after about 30 minutes, since both candidates were merely blaming the other for our woes and telling us how they will solve them even though most of the woes have to be acted on in Congress.

Letter:You've got some cheek, as my Irish wife would say. We may see voter fraud this election of a magnitude not seen since the late Mayor Daley's Chicago or New York's Tammany Hall, thanks to our friends at ACORN.

Letter:The Republican chickens have come home to roost!

Letter:Kudos for the informative and easy-to-digest "Election 2008" spread on Oct. 6.

Letter:I am shocked that our gas prices are not coming down.

Letter:Your Oct. 8 article "Dole, Perdue content to avoid debates" was misleading and unfair to Bev Perdue. She has committed to five televised debates in this campaign, with the next one is schedule for next week in Charlotte.

Letter:Regarding your Oct. 8 article "Dole, Perdue content to avoid debates": I think the reason Beverly Perdue declined the two debates with Pat McCrory and Mike Munger is because those two debates were broadcast on North Carolina public television, which is broadcast statewide.

Letter:When the Rev. Walter Leake at a GOP rally in Greenville prayed that God would silence the speech of Democrats who lie about McCain/Palin (news item, Oct. 9), he should have checked his facts first.

Letter:As your newspaper continues to fawn over U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan, you fail to recognize that the failure of the Democratic Congress is the reason we have the gas shortages in our region and the international financial crisis.

Letter:The "Mallard Fillmore" comic on Oct. 7 stated that Sen. Chris Dodd received $134,000 from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, implying that he has been bought by them.

Letter:I am tired of hearing about the past horrible eight years under the Bush administration.

Letter:Wake County revalued property at the peak of the real estate bubble. There was much said about values increasing as much as 40 percent or 50 percent, particularly in areas around North Hills where teardowns became commonplace.