One-stop absentee voting begins Thursday for the Nov. 3 municipal elections.

The Moore County Board of Elections will set up a polling place at the Agriculture Center on Pinehurst Avenue in Carthage. Voting is authorized there for registrants in all 11 municipalities.

Hours for one-stop voting are Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.; and the final Saturday, Oct. 31, until 1 p.m. Oct. 31 is the only Saturday when the polling place will be open.

Conventional voting will be carried out on Election Day at regular polling places in each municipality.

HOLSHOUSER -- Former Gov. James E. Holshouser Jr. didn't have to blow out 75 candles when the UNC system Board of Governors staged a birthday party in his honor last Friday.

The cake was topped with 30 candles to mark the number of years he has served on the board, according to an item in the Under the Dome column in The News & Observer of Raleigh.

The party was held in Chapel Hill.

Holshouser, who lives in Moore County, served as governor from 1973-77 and was the first Republican elected governor of North Carolina in the 20th Century. He continues to practice law here and remains active in state and local politics.

GOP PRECINCTS -- A combined GOP precinct meeting for Bensalem and Robbins Republicans will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at Virginia's Beauty Salon, 1224 Gurney Road in Robbins.

RALEIGH EXEC -- Moore County Airport's closest competitor for hangar rental space has changed its name from Sanford-Lee Regional Airport to Raleigh Exec, or, more formally, the Raleigh Executive Jetport @ Sanford-Lee County.

The Moore County Airport recently completed work on a $1.8 million hangar construction project, making available 17 new slots for aircraft rental purposes and bringing the new total to 80. It's an effort to attract aircraft owners back to their home community. Because of limited hangar space here, plane owners had been renting hangars at Sanford-Lee.

Apparently the Moore County initiative is working. When the airport held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new hangars a few weeks ago, all but one were already rented.

HACKNEY -- State House Speaker Joe Hackney came in for ribbing from the Republican Party after his visit to Charlotte last week.

The influential Democrat from Chapel Hill erred when he mentioned the wrong number for a loop highway with special traffic problems in Charlotte.

Tom Fetzer, chairman of the N.C. GOP, called it "a bad day" for the speaker.

"Despite his selfless attention to Charlotte's roads, Hackney struck an oratorical pothole when he didn't know which road he was talking about, and had to be corrected by the audience," Fetzer said in a statement released to the press. "Speaker Hackney went to Charlotte to demonstrate his awareness of the Queen City's needs and laid an egg.

"Let's hope he didn't take the wrong road home to Chapel Hill."

Hackney serves a district that includes one and a half precincts in Moore County.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at (910) 693-2479 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.