Voters tune into new registration rules, new county commissioner districts and contested races from the top of the ticket to a local tax referendum
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
With news reports along the presidential campaign trail now including datelines like Raleigh, Greensboro and the UNC campus, this spring’s primary season is heating up.
Set late in the season, North Carolina’s presidential primary is rarely a factor in deciding the presidential candidate of either party. This year, though, it may have a significant impact on the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In turn, that race is most certainly going to have an impact on local turnout.
New numbers on voter registration in Orange County indicate that the kind of high turnout experienced in other hotly contested states is likely. With 93,103 voters on the rolls as of Tuesday at 5 p.m., there are already nearly 10,000 more voters registered for the election than there were at the time of the primary in 2004. There have been almost 2,000 voters added since mid-February with the surge almost entirely among Democratic and unaffiliated voters.
Orange County now has 49,350 Democratic voters, up from 48,302 two months ago. The number of those registering as unaffiliated rose from 23,982 in February to 24,489. In the same time span, Republican numbers dropped from 19,363 to 19,255.
Voters have until Friday at 5 p.m. to register if they want to vote on Election Day, May 6. But early voting opens April 17 and new rules will allow citizens to register and vote on the same day. Early voting runs through May 3. Individuals who will be 18 years old at the time of the November election will be allowed to vote in the party primaries.
Information on registration, early voting and other items can be found at the Orange County Board of Elections web site, www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/
A long ballot
Though clearly driving up registration numbers, it’s not just the national race that’s drawing interest this year. There are heavily contested Democratic and Republican primaries for Governor and Lt. Governor as well as Council of State races to decide the Democratic candidates for State Auditor, Commissioner of Insurance, Commissioner of Labor, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Treasurer and the GOP candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
There are also two state court of appeal races on the May ballot.
U.S. congressional races are in less flux, except for the GOP contest between Orange County Party Chair Augustus Cho and B.J. Lawson of Cary. The winner will face Fourth District U.S. Congressman David Price in the fall.
On the Senate side, Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal and State Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro are campaigning for the right to face Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who has nominal opposition in the GOP primary. Neal and Hagan will debate in Chapel Hill on Sunday (April 13) in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building of the UNC School of Social Work. The debate begins at 2 p.m.
In General Assembly races this year, all three Democratic representatives in the state house — Speaker Joe Hackney, Rep. Verla Insko and Rep. Bill Faison — are running unopposed.
The state Senate race that will decide the Democratic candidate for Senate District 23 is already promising to be a hard fought contest between longtime county commissioner Moses Carey and six-term incumbent Sen. Ellie Kinnaird.
At presstime, Kinnaird and Carey were debating the issues at Town Hall in Chapel Hill.
Local races on the ballot this year include new seats and new districts for the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
Voters will be deciding on the Democratic Party candidate for an at-large seat in a race between Bernadette Pelissier, Neloa Barbee Jones and Mary Wolff. Also to be decided is the four-way Democratic contest for the new District 2 seat on the county commission between Tommy T. McNeill, Luther K. Brooks, Leo L. Allison and Steve Yuhasz.
Though everything else is a primary, voters will have a chance on May 6 to decide the composition of the Orange County Schools’ Board of Education by picking three winners from six candidates; Stephen H. Halkiotis, Tony McKnight, Jeff Michalski, Eddie M. Eubanks, Al Hartkopf and Stan Morris.
In one of the most contentious items on this year’s ballot voters will be asked to approve or reject a proposed 0.4 percent real estate transfer tax.
Also to be decided is a contest for an open seat for District Court 15B between Page Vernon, Glenn Gerding and Lamar Proctor.