Campaign Watch: Vote This Week in City Elections Across NC

Voters go to the polls tomorrow (Tuesday, October 10) to fill key local leadership posts in cities and towns across North Carolina, including Asheville, Burlington, Cary, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Raleigh (as well as many smaller communities). You can find out more about many of these candidates here.

This week’s marquee races are likely to be the contests in Raleigh and Cary. In part, that’s because environmental policy has been an explicit part of the campaign discussions there. In other part, it’s because the local election system in those two cities means that key contests there could be concluded this week. Only if there are more than two candidates in a race, and no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote October 10, will there be a runoff election between the top two October finishers held in that race on November 7.

In the contests in Asheville, Burlington, Durham, Greensboro, and High Point (among others), the voting this week will be in races with more than two candidates. That primary voting will pass on the top two vote-getters in each contest to the November election.

In many smaller communities, the nonpartisan plurality election system is used, in which the top vote-getter in a contest wins outright on November 7. And in a few cities (like Charlotte) the elections are decided by party primary in September and the final election between the parties’ nominees in November.

Don’t be confused! You can find out which system your city or town uses by checking your local Board of Elections website. Find your county’s website link here.

Remember that municipal elections decide who will make your city or town’s decisions on important environmental issues like parks and greenways, land use planning and zoning, transportation (bike paths and transit or only more roads), stormwater management, and wastewater treatment.

So get out and vote in your municipal elections, whether they’re this week or November or both! The park, greenway, stream, or neighborhood you save may be your own.

Next, legislators push forward two pro-polluter packages during the October “special session” >>