Due to two major lawsuits, there’s a second primary tomorrow for key state Supreme Court and congressional races. Here’s where to vote and what it means
Yes, fellow Ashevillians, we’ve been here before. Our state primary was March 15, after all, with people weighing in on races from the President to Buncombe County commissioners.
But there were two notable exceptions. Earlier this year federal courts threw out North Carolina’s redrawn congressional districts, asserting they were illegally drawn on racial lines to minimize the impact of minority voters. State legislators went back to the drawing board, emerging with new districts (which they bluntly asserted were drawn so that 10 of 13 seats heavily favor Republicans). That whole rigamarole meant that the state needed another congressional primary based on the new lines.
Those district shifts had some — but not a major — effect in WNC’s districts. Most Ashevillians are in the 10th congressional district, where Rep. Patrick McHenry is facing three challengers on the GOP side: retired postmaster Jeff Gregory, private investigator Jeffrey Baker and physician Albert Wiley, Jr. McHenry’s come under fire from some conservatives for, in their view, not being conservative enough. There’s no primary on the Democratic side, as Tryon business owner Andy Millard is the only Democratic candidate.
Over in the 11th District, Rep. Mark Meadows is having an easier time of it than his colleague McHenry. He has no primary opponent, but there’s a Democratic primary between Tom Hill, who ran against Meadows two years ago, and Bryson City alderman Rick Bryson.
But wait, there’s more. The state legislature also tried to shift elections for the powerful N.C. Supreme Court from a traditional head-to-head match between candidates to up-or-down vote on whether an incumbent should stay (if they got booted, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory would appoint a successor). Specifically, this affected incumbent Robert Edmunds, running for re-election to another eight-year term.
However, a lawsuit took issue with that, asserting the new law went against the state constitution and the Supreme Court deadlocked (Edmunds was recused, naturally) after a lower court agreed that the changes didn’t meet muster. That meant that the Supreme Court primary went onto the same ballot as the congressional primaries, as Edmunds faced off against Mike Morgan, a Wake County Superior Court judge, Daniel Robertson and Sabra Jean Faires (who filed the lawsuit that triggered this election in the first place). Edmunds is a Republican, Morgan and Robertson are Democrats and Faires is unaffiliated.
Every local voter (heck, every registered voter in the state) can vote on this race. Edmunds has attracted support from Republicans and some law enforcement officials, while Morgan’s snagged some endorsements as well, and the state AFL-CIO is backing Faires. The two top vote-getters will face off in November.
So yes, tomorrow will see a traditional election, with people voting at their neighborhood polling places. If you have a question about where yours is, you can find out here.
What we wrote about in our primary guide to the last one still holds when it comes to ID, ability to cast a ballot and other details. Unaffiliated voters can vote in either congressional primary as well as the N.C. Supreme Court primary.
While this election has largely gone beneath the radar, it could prove quite important, especially on the Supreme Court race. Turnout is likely to be incredibly low, so votes will count more than usual in these under-noticed races.
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