Republicans and some unaffiliated voters will head back to the polls next week for a second chance to pick the GOP’s nominees for lieutenant governor and state auditor in the November general election.
One-stop early voting for the May 14 second primary for the two statewide offices starts April 25 at early voting polling locations across the state.
Jim O’Neill and Hal Weatherman will face off in a runoff election for lieutenant governor while Dave Boliek and Jack Clark will vie in a runoff election for state auditor. The runoff elections are being held because no candidate got at least 30 percent of the total vote in the March 5 Republican primary for either contest.
In the 11-candidate GOP primary for lieutenant governor, Weatherman received 19.59 percent of the vote statewide to O’Neill’s 15.84 percent. Weatherman is the founder and president of the Electoral Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization promoting election integrity efforts in North Carolina. O’Neill is currently serving his fourth term as Forsyth County District Attorney.
In the six-candidate GOP primary for state auditor, Clark, an internal auditor for a multinational company who lives in Wake County, received 23.24 percent of the statewide vote while Boliek, an attorney from Fayetteville, received 22.10 percent of the vote.
In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can choose which primary to participate in during the primary elections. But in a second primary, any unaffiliated voter who cast a ballot in the other party’s primary cannot then cast a ballot in the opposing party’s second primary.
Weatherman, who led the field for lieutenant governor in the first GOP primary, also was the top choice among Nash County voters in the March 5 primary, garnering nearly 25 percent of the vote, while O’Neill, who came in sixth in Nash County, collected 9.55 percent of the vote.
O’Neill fared better among Edgecombe County voters in the GOP primary. He collected more than 12 percent of the vote for a fourth-place finish, while Weatherman, who topped the list, had slightly more than 24 percent of the Edgecombe County vote.
In the auditor’s race, Clark was the top finisher in Edgecombe County, with Boliek running in second place; but Boliek was the top finisher in Nash County, with Clark trailing in the county’s GOP primary.
Clark garnered 28.14 percent of the Edgecombe County vote and snagged 22.61 percent of the Nash County vote.
Boliek won 34.06 percent of the Nash County vote and earned 22.25 percent of the Edgecombe County vote.
The winner of the O’Neill-Weatherman runoff race will face Democrat Rachel Hunt in the Nov. 5 general election. Hunt, a lawyer and state senator representing Mecklenburg County, is the daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt.
The winner of the Boliek-Clark runoff will face incumbent N.C. State Auditor Jessica Holmes in the general election.
Holmes was appointed to the position by Gov. Roy Cooper and ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Hunt won her primary in a three-person race for the Democratic nomination.
During the May 14 runoff elections, no registration is allowed between primaries, meaning no same-day registration will be allowed during the early voting period for the runoff elections.
Voting in the runoff elections is actually already under way. County boards of elections began mailing absentee ballots March 30 to eligible voters who submitted a ballot request form. The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is 5 p.m. May 7. The deadline for returning an absentee ballot to the local board of election is 7:30 p.m. May 14, when polls close for the second primary.
Several other runoff elections are scheduled for May 14 but do not involve area voters. Kelly Daughtry and Brad Knott are vying for the GOP nomination in U.S. House District 13. According to the N.C. State Board of Elections’ website, there are also runoff elections scheduled for a GOP race for a seat on the Gaston County Board of Elections and a third seat on the Orange County Board of Education.
Julian Eure, managing editor of the Elizabeth City Daily Advance, contributed to this report.
Most Popular
Comments / 0