July 6, 2004
For immediate release.
Contact: Bryan Warner, N.C. Center for Voter Education,
(919) 839-1200
New State Voter Guide Highlights N.C. Judicial Race
RALEIGH - Voters in the July 20 primary will have a new tool to help them evaluate candidates in the often-overlooked contests for NC Supreme Court and NC Court of Appeals.
Studies by the NC Center for Voter Education show that nine out of ten voters in North Carolina are concerned that citizens don’t have enough information about state judicial candidates. More than half polled admitted they had little or no information about judges in the 2000 elections.
To change this trend, the NC State Board of Elections and the Center for Education have teamed-up to create and promote a free voter guide. It can be found online at www.ncvoterguide.org and at www.sboe.state.nc.us.
The guide was created by the NC State Board of Elections, as part of the Judicial Campaign Reform Act, enacted by the General Assembly in 2002. The purpose of the guide is to provide voters with information about candidates for appellate division judgeships (NC Court of Appeals and NC Supreme Court). These are statewide races that often do not receive the attention of other high-profile campaigns, such as those for Governor or US Senate. North Carolina consistently has fewer people vote for judicial candidates than other candidates that appear on the same ballot.
The NC Center for Voter Education is helping to promote the voter guide through public service announcements and various websites.
"This is a great tool, but we've got to make sure people know about it," said Chris Heagarty, executive director of the Center.
The primary election edition of the guide features candidates competing for the Thornburg seat on the NC Court of Appeals. The race for the Thornburg seat, with four candidates, is the only Court of Appeals or Supreme Court contest on the July 20 primary ballot.
The top two vote-winners in this nonpartisan race advance to the November general election. All four candidates will appear on Democratic and Republican ballots, and nonpartisan ballots are available for voters who request them.
The other three appellate division seats up for election this year have only two candidates each, thus allowing them to bypass the primary. The state will issue another voter guide this fall.
The cost of producing and distributing the voter guide are paid for through the Public Campaign Financing Fund, which is in its inaugural year. When filing their returns this year, taxpayers had the option to direct the state to spend $3 of the taxes already collected from them to pay for these guides and to provide financial aid to judicial candidates who restrict their fundraising and refuse political action committee money and large donations. The box to make this designation, however, did not appear on the forms of many taxpayers who used tax preparation software or on-line services to file, leading to less money than expected for the Fund.
The Center is supplementing the voter guide with “Judge for Yourself,” an online audio program that can be heard at www.stategovernmentradio.com. The Center’s executive director interviews one of the four candidates for the Thornburg seat in each 30-minute episode. After an initial weeklong run, each installment of the four-part series will be archived at stategovernmentradio.com.
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