Election Day is Tuesday. Here's what North Carolina voters need to know
Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians are expected to head to the polls Tuesday to help finalize who will be on the ballot for the general election in November.
The elections are part of Super Tuesday, the day when 15 states including North Carolina, Texas and California will hold their primaries. North Carolina’s results are expected to be closely watched nationally because of its status as a swing state. Political insiders will be watching to see how well — or poorly — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump perform in their respective presidential primaries.
But with those presidential races holding little suspense at this point — both men have cruised to victory in other states already — many North Carolina voters could be looking with increased interest to the primaries in state races, where the results are less predetermined.
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians all have primaries for governor this year, all seeking to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The two main parties also have primaries for numerous other statewide races — from insurance commissioner to attorney general, superintendent of public education, lieutenant governor and more.
And voters in different areas of the state will also vote in regional races ranging from the U.S. House of Representatives down to state legislative seats, judges and other positions.
People who want to see their sample ballot, or find out where their voting precinct is located, can find that information and more at the North Carolina State Board of Elections website or WRAL’s voter guide.
People who are members of a political party must vote in that party’s primary. People who are registered unaffiliated, however, are allowed to pick whichever party’s primary they’d like to participate in.
Unaffiliated voters make up the state’s largest voting bloc, followed by Democrats and Republicans, making it tough to predict how North Carolina will swing based on party registrations alone.
Republicans will have the biggest primary ballot this year.
Numerous open U.S. House of Representatives seats all over the state have attracted dozens of challengers. And in nearly all of those races, whoever wins the GOP primary will be the heavy favorite to win in November.
There are also competitive primaries for many of the Council of State jobs ranging from governor to agriculture secretary, labor commissioner and more.
Presidential race
Republican voters in North Carolina will see seven names on the presidential part of their ballots. But almost all of those candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, have since dropped out of the race. The only two candidates still actively competing are Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. Both campaigned in the state Saturday, with Trump in Greensboro and Haley in Raleigh.
Trump is the favorite, leading Haley in several polls and having beaten her in other states’ primaries already. But political observers will pay close attention to Haley’s results to gauge Trump’s popularity with moderate Republicans, some of whom voted for Biden in 2020.
On the Democratic side, Biden won’t have near as much competition as in 2020, when he beat 14 other Democratic challengers to win the primary in North Carolina. The North Carolina Democratic Party this year chose not to allow any primary challenge to Biden. So the only options for Democrats in that race will be Biden or “no preference.” The percentage of votes for no preference could be an indicator of how happy the state’s Democratic base is with the president, who faces low approval ratings. Unlike in other states there has not been a public effort in North Carolina to get more progressive Democrats to vote “no preference” in protest.
Republicans attempted a similar effort in 2020, to put only Trump’s name on the ballot. But two GOP challengers sued and were allowed to run in the primary here that year. This year, no Democratic challengers sued to challenge Biden.
Gubernatorial races
The GOP gubernatorial primary features three contenders: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham. Robinson is the front-runner. Graham and Folwell have each put $1 million or more of their own money into their campaigns, hoping to combat the prolific grassroots support that has given Robinson a strong fundraising lead.
Robinson is the first Black Republican to have won any major office in North Carolina since Reconstruction. He’d be the first Black governor in North Carolina history, and one of only a few Black governors in all of American history. While he enjoys strong popularity among the GOP base, some party insiders wonder whether a history of controversial comments about women, Jews, LGBTQ people and others will make it impossible for him to win the general election in a close swing state like North Carolina.
In the Democratic primary, Cooper has endorsed Attorney General Josh Stein to replace him as governor. Stein’s closest challenger in the Democratic primary is former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan. Morgan points out that the GOP is likely to nominate Robinson — and says Democrats could fare better in the general election if the Democratic Party also nominated a Black candidate such as himself. Black North Carolinians make up about one-fifth of the state population, and about half of all Democratic voters. Registered Black voters in North Carolina are overwhelmingly affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Morgan would have a chance to become North Carolina’s first Black governor if he wins the primary. Stein would have a chance to become North Carolina’s first Jewish governor. Three other Democrats are running in the race for governor, but with little traction so far: Chrelle Booker, Gary Foxx and Marcus Williams.
Republicans are all-but-guaranteed to keep control of the state legislature during this year’s elections. But it’s less certain whether they’ll keep the veto-proof supermajorities that have allowed the GOP to pass laws without needing to negotiate or compromise with the other party. That puts extra emphasis on the governor’s race.
If Republicans can flip the governor’s mansion, the party would still be able to flex its political will even if it loses its supermajority. Conversely, if Democrats can break the supermajority then holding the governor’s mansion will give the party significant leverage to stop certain policies from passing — or force Republican state lawmakers to negotiate on high-profile political issues like the state budget.
Congressional races
Republicans have a number of highly competitive primaries for U.S. House seats this year — and in almost all of those races, whoever wins the GOP primary is expected to be the heavy favorite to also win in November and go on to represent the state in Congress. That’s in large part because of the new Congressional map, approved late last year by Republican lawmakers.
North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House seats are currently split between seven republicans and seven democrats. The new voting districts are expected to yield a 10-4 or 11-3 delegation in favor of Republicans. With so few options for Democrats in the new maps, there’s little competition in that party’s congressional primaries.
The race for the GOP nomination in the 13th Congressional District — which covers many of the more rural areas to the north, east and south of the Triangle — has attracted a whopping 14 candidates. It was redrawn last year to no longer be a competitive seat and now leans heavily to the right.
In the 1st Congressional District in northeastern North Carolina — one of the nation’s longest-held Democratic congressional seats — is now the state’s only U.S. House seat that will be competitive in November. Republicans Sandy Smith, who has run twice and lost both times in the district, and Army veteran Laurie Buckhout are vying for the GOP nomination. The winner would face moderate Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an Air Force veteran who won the race to replace longtime U.S. Rep. G.K Butterfield in 2022.
There will also be new members of Congress representing North Carolina in U.S. House districts 6, 8, 10 and 14 — districts that largely cover the areas between the Triad and the Charlotte suburbs. Each has a competitive Republican primary, whose winner will be the heavy favorite to also win in November and go on to represent the state in Washington, D.C.
Four Democratic incumbents, meanwhile, are running for reelection to the U.S. House. Only one of them, U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross of Raleigh, faces a primary challenger: Michael Camero.
Council of State
The governor is one of the 10 state officials who sit on the Council of State, in charge of running the executive branch of government. There are Republican primaries in nine of those 10 races — all except attorney general. There are Democratic primaries in six of those 10 races.
One key question is who Democratic voters will nominate to try replacing Stein as attorney general, an office Democrats haven’t lost in over a century. That primary pits U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson — a widely known Charlotte politician who’s quitting Congress because his district was redrawn to lean heavily to the right — against Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry, who won that role by campaigning as a prosecutor who would support criminal justice reforms from inside the system.
The winner of that race would face Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, who is running unopposed and is therefore not on primary ballots.
Several Republicans are also seeking the state auditor seat vacated by Beth Wood, a Democrat who resigned late last year. Wood has pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run after a holiday party and again after an investigation into her driving habits and charges that she used state vehicles for personal errands. Democrat Jessica Holmes, who was appointed to serve out Wood’s term, is seeking election to the seat and doesn’t have a Democratic challenger in the primary.
Judicial races
There are many local primaries for trial court judges all around the state, but each party only has a single primary for appellate races that all voters statewide can vote in.
On the Democratic side, there’s a primary for a seat in the state Supreme Court. Incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, the former leader of the voting rights group Southern Coalition for Social Justice, is being challenged by Lora Cubbage, a Guilford County trial court judge who was the Democratic nominee for a Court of Appeals seat in 2020. Riggs was appointed to the high court less than a year ago by Cooper, to fill the seat vacated by Morgan when he stepped down to run for governor. The winner will face Republican Jefferson Griffin, a Court of Appeals judge since 2021, in the general election. Griffin is running unopposed and therefore won’t be on primary ballots. The general election in November will determine whether Republicans maintain their 5-2 majority on the court or expand it to 6-1.
One the Republican ballot, there’s one primary for a seat on the 15-judge state Court of Appeals. Hunter Murphy, a GOP judge who has recently been censured by the state Supreme Court — which found he “contributed to and enabled a toxic work environment” for female employees at the court — faces challenger Chris Freeman, a trial court judge who serves in Rockingham and Caswell counties. The winner of that race will face Democratic nominee Martin Moore, an Asheville lawyer who serves on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.
Third-party primaries
The Libertarian Party has two statewide primaries this year, for president and governor. The party’s presidential primary features 10 candidates. The governor’s race is between two Libertarian candidates, Mike Ross and Shannon Bray. Bray was the party’s nominee for the 2022 U.S. Senate race, when he won about 1.4% of the vote.
The state’s two other officially recognized political parties, the Green Party and No Labels, will not have primaries this year.
If those parties nominate anyone for president, it will be done at a national convention. There is a Green Party nominee for governor who will appear on the November ballot, Wayne Turner.
Statewide, roughly 60,000 of the 7.4 million total voters belong to the Libertarian, Green or No Labels parties.
How to vote
Anyone who still wishes to cast a ballot in the primary must do so on Tuesday, or by mail. Early voting ended Saturday.
The primary elections always have significantly lower turnout than the general election. But that means the people who do show up to vote have more influence.
Voter ID: Voters are required to show photo identification at the polls this year, a new change for most. People without an ID will still be allowed to cast a ballot in many cases, but they’ll have to vote provisionally and fill out additional paperwork.
Voting by mail: It’s too late to request a mail-in ballot. But people who have already requested them before the deadline and received mail-in ballots can also still send them in or hand-deliver them to local election officials use that method. But caution is warranted for those who plan on mailing them: Unlike in past years, the state no longer allows a three-day grace period for ballots sent before the election to be delivered and counted. Under a new law Republican state lawmakers passed last year, mail-in ballots that aren’t delivered by Tuesday won’t be counted.
People with mail-in ballots that they haven’t yet put in the mail can skip the Post Office and hand-deliver their ballots to their local county elections office on Monday or Tuesday. They could also choose to throw away the mail-in ballot and go vote in person on Tuesday.
For more answers to questions on the rules and logistics for voting, the state has many details listed at www.ncsbe.gov/voting.
