The state will have a two-election primary this year. Voters will still cast primary ballots for president, governor, a bond referendum and a host of local races on March 15. But a second primary will be held June 7 just for the U.S. House of Representatives. This comes after a federal court ordered lawmakers to redraw the congressional districts.
WFDD's Paul Garber spoke with State Board of Elections general counsel Joshua Lawson about what those changes mean for voters. For one thing, Lawson says, those hastily redrawn boundary lines aren't yet official.
"They've been submitted to the court for review," says Lawson. "The court is, we think, going to review those and get back to us on whether we've complied as a state with their mandate of three weeks ago."
Lawson say the timeline for any official changes is ultimately up to the courts.
Interview Highlights:
How can voters find out which district they're in?
"We're going to be developing an unofficial tool that will be on our site just for reference by the voters. We hope to have that tool in place over the next week. It will not be officially your lines until the court approves it and you have been recoded as a voter to be put in your new district. But there will be an unofficial resource where people can lookup where will they fall once that coding change has happened. "
What happens to absentee ballots that have already been cast?
"There's still a very important election taking place on March 15th. We're glad that people have been participating by absentee. We still want people to vote their full ballot. Right now, just under 30,000 ballots have already gone out in the absentee voting process. Those will count for all races except for U.S. House of Representatives. We still, because of the risk of voter confusion, want to make sure people vote their full ballot. We don't want people to be confused about what will and won't count. Leave that to the State Board of Elections. We won't certify anything that we aren't allowed to certify under the court's order. Still continue to vote. Still be part of that process because it is going to count for everything but U.S. House.
How do folks register without signing up for a party?
"We have three recognized parties in the state: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian. We have a separate option that you can be unaffiliated with any political party. We have a quasi-open primary system here in North Carolina. An unaffiliated voter is permitted to vote in any of the primaries of the other parties, but you can only vote in one party's primary."
Does anything change since there are two separate primaries in terms of which party you vote for?
"When you have runoff elections, you're limited to the party you pick the first time around. But because the legislature eliminated runoff elections, you're now a free agent as an unaffiliated voter. You could pick a Libertarian ballot during the primary here in March and when you go in June for the U.S. House of Representative seats, you could pick a Democratic ballot. There's nothing that links you between elections or ties you down or limits your options."
This is the first statewide election that will require a photo ID. Acceptable IDs could include a driver's license, military or state ID, among others. Lawson says people should come out to vote even if they are unsure about the ID requirement.
"If you have an ID that's acceptable, please bring it. If you don't have one, or if you have questions about the process, come anyway. There are a lot of exceptions that may cover you. But we want everyone to participate."
Lawson says primary votes this year are more important than ever because there's no runoff - so whoever gets the most votes wins.
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