Legislative Briefs: Changes on Tap for N.C. Elections

In what supporters are calling major advancements for elections in North Carolina, three local governments are primed to implement innovations for campaigning and voting in their municipal races, while state voters will be given more opportunities to register to cast a ballot under a measure approved by the General Assembly.

Same-Day Registration Aims at Boosting Voter Turnout

North Carolinians will be able to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day during the state’s early voting period, thanks to a bill passed this summer by the legislature.

State law had previously required voters to register 25 days before Election Day. Under the new system, voters who go to “one-stop” early voting sites will be able to register and then immediately vote.

Proponents of the measure (HB 91) pointed to other states that have seen a boost in their turnout since implementing same-day registration. North Carolina currently ranks 47 out of the 50 states when it comes to voter turnout, according to Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

State lawmakers approved the change to the state’s voter registration procedures by a vote of 69-47 in the House and 34-15 in the Senate.

Cary and Hendersonville to Test Instant Runoff Voting

Voters in the towns of Cary and Hendersonville will be the first in North Carolina to experience instant runoff voting when they head to the polls this fall.

Cary -- the seventh-largest municipality in the state -- will pioneer a voting process that is designed to avoid the expense and low voter turnout that plague runoff elections when they vote in October. Hendersonville will follow a few weeks later with their town council elections in November.

With instant runoff voting, voters use their ballots to rank the field of candidates for each office, according to their preference, up to three candidates.  

At the end of Election Day, the first-choice rankings are tallied. If no candidate received enough first-choice votes to win, then an “instant runoff” would take place, with all but the top two voter-getters being eliminated.

Those ballots that had ranked an eliminated candidate as No. 1 would then be reallocated to the vote total of the remaining runoff candidate they ranked higher. The new vote total would be tallied to determine the winner.

An additional eight cities or towns could have followed the lead of Cary and Hendersonville and adopted instant runoff voting for this year’s elections under a bill passed during the 2006 state legislative session. The measure allows for 10 counties to implement the system in 2008.

Instant runoff voting has been adopted in several cities across the country, and has been used in Australia for nearly a century.

Green Light Given for Chapel Hill Public Financing

Candidates for the Chapel Hill Town Council will have the option of using public funds for their campaigns this fall. During this year’s state legislative session, lawmakers granted permission for the town to implement a pilot program of public financing for its municipal elections.

The voluntary program would allow town council contenders to receive public funds for their campaigns after they demonstrate a certain level of voter support.

Proponents say that public financing will remove a “wealth barrier” preventing otherwise qualified candidates from running for office, while restoring voters’ faith in an electoral system that has seen a rise in campaign spending. Over 80 percent of state voters are concerned about the role private campaign contributions play in elections, according to a June study commissioned by the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education.

The Town of Cary launched a public financing program for its 2001 town council elections, but the State Board of Elections ruled that system to be illegal because Cary had not been granted permission by the state legislature.

A vote of 65-51 in the House and 35-9 in the Senate to approve House Bill 483 removed that hurdle, giving Chapel Hill the exclusive right to implement public financing for its local elections.