How to watch: Candidate forum for these Charlotte elections will be broadcast in Spanish.

Candidates vying for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education and Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners will get the opportunity to share their platform with Spanish speakers today.

Telemundo Charlotte will broadcast the Board of Education Candidate forum at 5 p.m. today, and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners forum at 5 p.m. Friday, both in Spanish. Both nonpartisan events will be available to stream on the Telemundo Charlotte Facebook page and will last an hour and a half.

In Mecklenburg County there are 43,000 Latino registered voters, according to the Latino Civic Engagement Committee which created the forum with Telemundo Charlotte, Camino Health Center, El Pueblo, The LIBRE Initiative and the Latino Civic Participation Project. There are 170,000 Hispanic residents in Mecklenburg County and more than 40,000 Latino CMS students.

The following county commission candidates agreed to participate in the forum:

▪ Leigh Altman, Democrat at-large

▪ Pat Cotham, Democrat at-large

▪ Arthur Griffin Jr., Democrat at-large

▪ Tatyana Thulien, Republican at-large

▪ Elaine Powell, Democrat District 1 i

▪ Ross Monks, Republican District 1

▪ Dianna Benson, Republican District 3

▪ Ray Fuentes, Republican District 4

▪ Laura Meier, Democrat District 5

▪ Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, Democrat District 6 incumbent

District 3 Democratic incumbent George Dunlap and District 2 Democratic incumbent Vilma Leake said they would not be attending, according to the Latino Civic Engagement Committee. Leake is running unopposed.

The following school board candidates agreed to participate in the forum:

▪ Bill Fountain, District 1

▪ Ro Lawsin, District 1

▪ Rhonda Cheek, District 1

▪ Melissa Easley, District 1

▪ Hamani R. Fisher, District 1

▪ Thelma Byers-Bailey, District 2

▪ Juanrique Hall, District 2

▪ Steven Rushing, District 3

▪ Carol Sawyer, District 4

▪ Stephanie Sneed, District 4

▪ Carla Kennedy Witherspoon, District 4

▪ Trent Merchant, District 5

▪ Lisa Cline, District 5

▪ Summer Nunn, District 6

▪ Michael Watson, District 6

District 6 candidate Sean Strain will not be attending.

This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.

Genna Contino

The Charlotte Observer

Genna Contino previously covered local government for the Observer, where she wrote about Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. She attended the University of South Carolina and grew up in Rock Hill.