Voting Stickers (Image used under license from Shutterstock.com)
Anthony DeHart
North Carolina voters go to the polls March 5 to decide nominees for races including president, governor, and other statewide and regional offices. This primary will be the second in North Carolina’s history to occur on so-called ‘Super Tuesday,’ the day when the largest number of U.S. states hold primary contests or caucuses.
Karen Brinson-Bell, state Board of Elections executive director, says this may help boost voter turnout.
‘It’s actually the second time we’ve been a Super Tuesday state,’ she said. ‘We were a Super Tuesday state back in 2020, and we saw strong turnout then. We had about 2.2 million people participate in that primary.’
Brinson-Bell also noted that the 2020 general election saw the highest voter turnout in North Carolina’s history.
‘We had our largest turnout ever in a general election in November 2020,’ Brinson-Bell said. ‘About 5.5 million voters participated. That was about a 75% turnout. And it’ll be interesting to see if we see that strong a push this November.’
Brinson-Bell added that many North Carolina voters prefer to cast their ballots during early voting.
‘For the past few election cycles, early voting is the most preferred method of voting for North Carolinians,’ she said. ‘That’s across all political parties, rural and urban. It doesn’t matter. That seems to be the preference.’
The window is now open for those who want to apply for an absentee ballot for the March primaries. For more information on how to request a ballot, Brinson-Bell suggests visiting ncsbe.gov.
‘That’s also a source for information on absentee by mail and a way to request an absentee by mail ballot,’ she said. ‘It’s a source of information for photo ID, and some of the things we discussed today.’
Karen Brinson-Bell, North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director, is the guest on this week’s edition of ‘Carolina Newsmakers’ with Don Curtis. You can listen to the full episode here.