Mitchell Oakley: Don't leave that second primary vote in your pocket

Early voting has started. “For what offices?” you may legitimately ask.

There are two state offices being contested in a Republican second primary because a winner wasn’t decided in the first primary on March 5. The first is the office of lieutenant governor and the second is the office of auditor.

Under election law, a candidate must receive at least 30 percent of the vote to win in the primary. Otherwise, the second-highest vote-getter can request a runoff with the top vote-getter in a second primary. Both the lieutenant governor and auditor races had multiple candidates, none receiving the required 30 percent.

Jim O’Neill and Hal Weatherman face off in the lieutenant governor’s race while Dave Boliek and Jack Clark tangle in the race for auditor. Both spots are important, but the auditor’s race may be the most important as far as the responsibilities the agency has to the state’s citizenry, especially the oversight it possesses over finances in state government.

The official date of the second primary is May 14. But, you still have a few days of early voting that remain.

Democrats can’t vote in the Republican second primary, but those voters who are registered as unaffiliated and voted in the Republican first primary, are eligible to vote.

Both Greene and Pitt counties will have only one early voting site. In Greene County, voters must vote at the at the Board of Elections office at 104 Hines St., Snow Hill, while in Pitt County, voters will have to travel north of the river in Greenville to the Elections Annex at 1800 N. Greene St., Greenville.

Early voting is ongoing now and ends at 3 p.m. on May 11. In Both counties, the voting hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 11.

In the lieutenant governor’s race, Hal Weatherman had the highest number of votes at 181,818 to Jim O’Neill’s 147,042 votes in the first primary. Both face off in the second primary.

Weatherman has been chief of staff both for former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and former U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick. Weatherman founded a charter school and has pledged to lobby against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices, according to CarolinaJournal.com. A Wake countian, Weatherman is founder and president of the nonprofit Electoral Education Foundation, an organization designed to ensure election integrity. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Wheaton College.

O’Neill ran for attorney general against Josh Stein in 2020 and lost. He has, however, been a four-term District Attorney in Forsyth County where he started as an assistant DA. From Winston-Salem, O’Neill is a graduate of Duke University and New York Law School. He pledges to create a panel that will work on policy to combat the state’s mental health challenges, according to the Star-News Online.

The winner of this race will face Democrat Rachel Hunt in November. She is the daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt.

In my view the auditor’s race is hugely important. Clark led the voting in the first primary. He received 198,793 votes to Boliek’s 189,701 votes.

According to an April 2 news piece on Ballotpedia.org, Clark is a member of the General Assembly staff who works on budget policy. He also is a former private sector auditor. Clark told Ballotpedia he believes he is the best candidate because he is “the only candidate with a masters in accounting, a CPA, and (has) recent audit experience.” The major responsibility of the auditor, Clark believes is “to find the objective truth.”

Boliek, who is a lawyer, is a member of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees. He cites his experience managing university investments and the fact he is a prosecuting attorney that makes him the best candidate. He told Ballotpedia that his belief of the auditor’s core responsibilities include “leading a highly effective team to accomplish work on behalf of the taxpayers” and “implementing a strategic plan to achieve accountability for the spending of taxpayer dollars.”

The victor will face Democrat Jessica Holmes and Libertarian Bob Drach in the General Election in November.

I would encourage every Republican and every unaffiliated voter who can vote in the second primary to do your own research of the candidates. I have only very briefly hit the high spots of their biographies.

Finally, I’m not a fan of having only one early-voting place in the second primary. I understand that everyone knows the turnout will not be as great. Yet, in my view having only one site makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy of low voter turnout because there will be people — especially the elderly — who cannot get to the annex who could otherwise get to the Winterville Fire Station or some other out-of-Greenville sites.

For the first time in a long time, I will cast my ballot on Election Day rather than at the early voting site. I challenge Republicans and unaffiliated everywhere to come out in droves. It is time to wake up to the fact that voting is an important right that none of us need to leave in our back pockets.