North Carolina Presidential Primary
...nominating process. North Carolina presidential primary is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 6th from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. for Republicans, Democrats, and Unaffiliated registered voters (Cook, 2008). The May 6th primary will also feature races for U.S. Senate, Governor, the General Assembly, judgeships and the nine-member Council of State, which includes the Attorney General and State Auditor. Local races will be on the ballot, too. Certainly this multiple race election will further increase the vote turnout (Ingram, 2008).
Tradition is the word that explains why North Carolina decided to hold its primary so late in the presidential nominating process. Its decision has caused the state to be often overlooked by presidential candidates (Cook, 2008). By the time North Carolina’s citizens get to the polls, 45 states will have already held their primaries and caucuses. However, in this year’s presidential election North Carolina could be key to the presidential nominating process. This rare event is fruit of the tight race between Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination. Unlike any recent memory, the State of North Carolina in the 2008 presidential primaries will be a crucial, final battleground before the National Democratic Convention (Chou, 2008).
North Carolina’s presidential primary is a closed primary system, wherein registered Democrats and Republicans can vote only on their respective party’s primary; independents or unaffiliated voters may participate in either party’s primary. However, if an unaffiliated voter chooses to vote in the Democratic primary, they cannot vote in a Republican runoff or second primary. Similarly, an unaffiliated voter who votes in a Republican primary cannot vote in a Democratic runoff (Cook, 2008). According to North Carolina State...
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