Articles

The North Carolina General Assembly currently pays the fifth-lowest legislative salary of all states and U.S. territories The General Assembly should raise legislative salaries to enable more North Carolinians to be financially able to run for office An increase in taxpayer burden due to increasing salaries can be offset by reducing the length of legislative...

On the heels of incumbent Allison Riggs’ apparent win in the North Carolina Supreme Court race, challenger Jefferson Griffin’s campaign has challenged about 60,000 ballots they say are plagued by “irregularities and discrepancies.” The campaign’s list of protests to county election boards covers several categories, listed below (with letters to the Durham County Board of...

As part of the latest hurricane-recovery relief package, the legislature has embedded several policy changes into the bill that change various agencies, appointments, and powers issued to Council of State positions. Ignoring for the time being the questionable practice of adding policy changes to a funding bill (especially when the vehicle used is a unamendable...

Appointments to unfulfilled terms should reflect the will of voters The current rules for replacing judges and Council of State members give the governor the power to subvert the will of the people The North Carolina State Constitution should be amended so that appointees are of the same party as the elected officials they are...

For Republicans on the national front, election night was a good night.  Not only did Donald Trump take every toss-up state and likely the popular vote, but Republicans were able to retake the Senate and maintain Congress.  Trump improved his numbers in every state, including deep blue states like New York (11 points), with the...

The 2024 election has come  to pass (apart from a few notable exceptions here in North Carolina, like the NC Supreme Court Race), and with it comes the favorite time of many election analysts: the autopsy. While we won’t have some data available till the county canvass 10 days after the election, this time can...

November 19, 2024 UPDATE While we will have a statewide recount, it appears that incumbent North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs has achieved the unlikely, pulling ahead of Griffin ten days after election day. As of this morning, according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE), she leads Griffin by...

When Gov. Roy Cooper announced in 2023 that he was appointing Allison Riggs to the North Carolina Supreme Court to fill the remaining term of retiring justice Michael Morgan, I predicted that she would likely have a short and unhappy tenure on the court, unhappy because she was in the minority and short because she...

Ballot-marking devices increase the chances of voting errors Incidents in the 2024 election highlight concerns over ballot-marking devices The General Assembly should require all counties to use hand-marked paper ballots Incidents in other states in the November 5 election have highlighted problems with ballot-marking devices (BMDs): touchscreen voting machines that produce a small paper ballot...

While it may be hard to predict the outcome of many races in North Carolina tonight, we have a pretty good idea of how the evening and subsequent days will progress. Here are three things to know about tonight’s election results in the Old North State. 1. It Will Be Election Night in North Carolina...

Election day is upon us, and with it come many eyes on battleground states like North Carolina that will determine who will be the next President of the United States.  Polling indicates that both the presidential and most other statewide elections are going to be close this year.  While eyes will be on these top-of-the-ballot...

As North Carolina gears up for election day, let’s take a final look at the data on the pre–election day ballots. Most of the data will come from the John Locke Foundation’s Vote Tracker. Voter Registration Changes: Republicans Led in Same-Day Registrations As seen on the John Locke Foundation’s Voter Registration Changes page, Republicans had...

With less than a week until election day, candidate third-quarter finance reports are beginning to be posted on the State Board of Elections website. Unlike federal elections with the FEC, reports to the state board of elections require processing before they become public on the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) website. Though we are...

We have all seen the scenes of utter devastation after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina. Yet most county boards of elections were up and running within a few days, and every county in the affected area was conducting early voting (sometimes with modified plans) three weeks later. To get an impression of how early...

The big news through the first eleven days of early voting is that Republicans have jumped out to an unprecedented advantage. Since no one believes that Democrats will outvote Republicans on election day, that raises the question of whether Democrats can turn the early voting trend around during the last week of early voting. Voter...

According to the October Carolina Journal Poll (formerly Civitas Poll), Mo Green’s lead over Michele Morrow for State Superintendent of Public Instruction has narrowed to 2.5 percentage points. In September, Green led Morrow by 4.1 percentage points. Regarding to the numbers, 43.2 percent of voters chose Morrow, while 45.7 percent chose Green. A little over 11 percent...

Like most election analysts and reporters, lately, my focus has been solely on voter turnout patterns and the money going into North Carolina’s competitive races. This year, North Carolina plays host not only to one of the most competitive states for the electoral college but also to one of three competitive seats in the southeastern United...

Four years ago, I posted a piece discussing the judicial races that were taking place at the time. Since it’s still relevant, I’m reposting the first part today. A reporter recently asked me several questions about the North Carolina Supreme Court races. Because they’re questions of general interest, and because there’s more to be said...

This week’s data dump includes the first four days of early voting, letting us add a little more data. Voter Registration Changes County boards of elections processed the last of the regular voter registrations (deadline October 11) this week and started processing same-day registrations. There was a net increase of 7,107 Democratic, 8,741 Republican, and...

The North Carolina Leadership Forum (NCLF) hosted a series of meetings in 2023 and 2024 for election policy experts and public officials from across the political spectrum. The goal was to reach a broad consensus, or at least a mutual understanding, on one question: “What is the best way for North Carolina to conduct elections?”...

This Thursday marks the start of North Carolina’s early voting. While many people have likely been inundated with ads and media coverage about the top of the ticket, it is important to pay attention to lower-ballot races like local state House and Senate Races. While Republicans are likely to still hold a majority in 2025,...

North Carolina county boards of elections conduct sample hand-to-eye counts of ballots to ensure that they were tabulated correctly Though intended to be random, the way the sample is conducted makes it more likely that some types of ballots are selected for auditing than others, especially in larger counties There are ways the General Assembly...

This is the last week of North Carolina election data before early voting starts on Thursday, October 17. Voter Registration Changes This is the first week of the election season in which either party’s registration increase came close to that of the unaffiliated. There was a net increase of 5,430 Democratic, 11,329 Republican, and 12,916...

Most people know that judges are restricted in their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Judges and candidates for judicial office are unable to speak to policy and potential cases that may come before them in court. However, this is not the only prohibition on their First Amendment rights.  Once an individual declares candidacy...