MANTEO, N.C. — Voters in North Carolina have a lot of choices to make in Tuesday's primary election.
Elections officials spent Monday getting ready for election day, a bit of a breather after two weeks of early voting.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections said Monday that more than 670,000 people in North Carolina voted early. And so far, more than 19,000 people have cast ballots by mail.
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During a news conference in Raleigh, elections officials reminded voters that North Carolina does not have open primaries, unlike some other states.
“In a partisan primary, voters affiliated with a political party can only vote their party’s ballot and may not vote in another party’s primary,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. “Unaffiliated voters may choose any one political party’s ballot or a nonpartisan ballot if available in your jurisdiction."
Voters must also vote at their assigned polling place on Election Day and bring a photo ID. Voters can find their polling place using the board’s Voter Search tool.
There’s not only the presidential race, but also primaries for congressional elections and numerous state and local races, including for governor. The candidates that emerge from their respective party primaries will be on the November General Election ballot.
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Chris Cooper, the Madison Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University, said the issues being stressed by political campaigns depend on the party.
And that’s reflected in the advertising voters see on television or receive in the mail.
“If they're from Republican candidates talking about immigration, they're talking about the border in some way. Perhaps they're talking about the economy a little bit less but still mentioning it,” Cooper said. “I get flyers from Democratic candidates. It tends to be about abortion and it tends to be about kind of the good parts of the economy.”
Candidates have spent the past few weeks trying to reach voters and stand out on a crowded primary ballot.
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Those candidates and everyone else will have to wait a little longer than in past years to see who comes out on top in the primaries because of changes to state law regarding when early in-person votes are counted.
“It could be 30 minutes, could be an hour, could be two hours depending on which county we're talking about,” he said. “So, I think we're all gonna need to practice a little bit of patience on election night.”
Polls open on Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.
If you’re casting an absentee ballot, elections officials said it’s too late to put them in the mail. They must be in the hands of elections officials by the time polls close, so voters can drop them off at county board of elections offices. They can also choose to discard the absentee ballot and vote at their assigned polling place.
