What You Need to Know About the North Carolina Primaries

Voters should familiarize themselves with the requirement for registration before March 3 (Source)

With the presidential primaries underway, North Carolina voters will soon have the chance to cast their ballots. The North Carolina Democratic Primary will occur on March 3 as part of “Super Tuesday,” a day in the presidential primary season when 14 states hold their primaries or caucuses. 

Before heading to the polls, it is important to first review the relevant information and rules of the primary. North Carolina holds a semi-closed primary, meaning that unaffiliated voters can choose which party’s primary they would like to participate in, but party-affiliated voters may only vote in their own party’s primary. Of the state’s 122 delegates in the Democratic primary, 110 will be allocated proportionally based on the results. 

According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, the polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Due to a recent federal district court order, voters do not need to present photo identification to vote.

Early voting has already started and will continue until the election day. For a list of early voting sites in each county and their hours of operations, click here. If you are not yet registered to vote, North Carolina offers same-day registration, allowing you to vote immediately after. For information on the required documentation, read the same-day registration tab on the Board of Elections website.

As of now, the race in North Carolina is looking quite competitive, making voting even more important. Polling data indicate a close three person race between Senator Bernie Sanders, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden. For weeks, Biden held a commanding lead in the polls, but his popularity has recently dropped significantly, placing him slightly below Sanders and Bloomberg. 

In addition to the presidential primary, North Carolina will also be holding primaries for congressional elections and other state and local offices on the same day. The five person Democratic primary for the Senate will determine who faces off against Republican incumbent Thom Tillis in the general election in November.

In that race, it was recently discovered that a GOP super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has spent nearly $3 million on ads supporting Erica Smith over Cal Cunningham, the Senate Democrats’ preferred candidate. Smith has publicly rejected any personal connection to the the PAC, while Cunningham has used this incident as proof that he is the candidate Republicans fear most and who has the best chance of defeating Senator Tillis in November. 

It remains to be seen how much this ad campaign will actually affect the outcome of the election, but this type of election meddling is always something to be concerned about, especially in competitive elections like the upcoming ones in North Carolina.