In Chapel Hill's first election cycle with the option of public funding, two winners found that the Voter-Owned Elections system made a big difference."On Tuesday, Councilman Mark Kleinschmidt, one of the two voter-owned candidates, was elected mayor and the other, Penny Rich, won a seat on the Town Council..."The voter-owned fund played a crucial role in making sure that I could get my message out to voters," Kleinschmidt said. "This was one of the most substantive campaigns I've ever been a part of, and a lot of that is because participating in the public financing program took the focus off of money and put it on issues.""Rich, who finished sixth in the 2007 council race, said the voter-owned program was a difference-maker for her campaign this time around."To read the full article, click here.