Two days before early, one-stop voting begins, the State Board of Elections has decided that Ryan Croft may run for Asheville City Council. Kelly Miller, the fourth-highest vote-getter dropped out of the race. The Buncombe County Board of Elections appealed to the state to find out what to do with the vacancy. The state advised that since the votes had not been certified, Miller’s would not be counted, and Croft would be on the ballot.

Croft has an interesting poll question on his web site:

Asheville brings in over $138M in tax revenues, but can’t balance a budget. What should City Council do?

Sweet in its innocence, it neither acknowledges the state’s Balanced Budget Act nor the fact that the city’s CEO, Ben Durant, is about as fiscally conservative as they come in Asheville.

Of course, it is difficult to keep up with everything government says and does these days. For example, Asheville City Council meets second and fourth Tuesdays, and usually finishes up around 11:00 pm. So, tonight, the Haw Creek Community Association and Evergreen Community Charter School hosted a candidates’ forum at 7:00 pm. It could be they don’t like incumbents, or they were trying to be merciful to people who think members of council finished saying what they had to say three years ago. City council adjourned after only three hours tonight.