The countdown to the North
Carolina primary continues.
We're less than a month away
from Election Day in our state,
joining us on two wants to
know we have Charlie Collicut,
the director of the Guilford
County Board of Elections.
He is answering all your elections
related questions and you can
text those questions to us at
336-379-5775. These are the type
of questions where you can ask it
anonymously and you can get your answer
to the question right on the spot.
All right for those who are like I.
And I heard that there was an election.
I don't know what the dates are.
Let's go over when the early voting
begins and ends and Election Day.
OK, early voting it's coming up.
It's going to start on April 28th.
That's a Thursday 8:00 AM
at 8 different locations.
It's gonna go on for.
Of the next 17 days and it's
going to end on May 14.
And then we're going to have
Election Day on May 17th.
The polling places where we have 165
open throughout the entire county
alright, and this is one of those
things where primaries may be a little
bit different than general election,
where some polling places may be condensed.
So everybody really does need to take a
look at where they're going to be voting.
Yeah, we won't use as many early
voting sites as what we normally use.
You know, for example, back in the
2020 presidential we used 25 places.
This time we're only using
8 early voting sites,
so you do need to check and and look
at the schedule and look at our maps
to see what's open on Election Day.
Though, we're going to open up
all of them for this May 17th,
so where you normally go is going to be
the place we we've had some changes,
so it's still important to to to
look at check online and check your
registration or call us and ask,
but we will be opening up.
All 165 places on May 17th
and of course while Charlie is talking
from the Guilford County point of view,
he's talking about as well.
He can talk about the big picture as well.
You do need to, no matter where you are,
go on to your Board of Elections to
find out and make sure where your
early voting sites are and to check
that your voting site is the same.
All right, let's talk about what people
will be voting on because someone was like,
oh, I don't think there's an
election in my county and I'm like,
yeah, but there is.
Yeah, there's a lot to vote on this year,
but again, this is a primary,
so not every contest that you that
you'll end up seeing in the November
general will be on the ballot.
Depending on how many people from
each party decided to run as a big
impact on what appears on the ballot.
And obviously where you live can have a
big impact of of what's on the ballot,
you may vote on on some slate of
candidates and somebody on another part
of town may have something different,
but everybody, Democrats Republicans.
They've all got this big Senate race.
And then as you go down the ballot.
It varies by party,
but we've got United States
House of Representatives.
We've got some State House Rep,
a lot of judicial races,
clerk or courts DA and then
a lot of our local races.
County Commissioners, School Board,
and then of course here in Greensboro.
This is different depending
on where you live.
But here in Greensboro there's
going to be their City Council
primary and then following up
that with in Guilford County.
We've got a bond and then a
quarter cent sales tax issue,
OK? We've got a graphic for that too.
We don't want folks to miss that.
In case you haven't heard,
there is a Guilford County schools bond.
It is a $1.7 billion bond and then,
along with that, is also a
fraction of a penny sales tax.
Now these are two different
things to vote on.
Right, the bond.
The $1.7 billion bond is is 1
totally separate issue from
this quarter cent sales tax.
So you can vote independently.
We're not at all on on
either of those items.
OK, all right? And then there's
been a lot of back and forth
about whether you have to
take your ID to go and vote.
So what is what is the
rule for this election?
All right for this election that we know of?
We're not gonna be. Asking for ID at
the polls to vote on Election Day.
Now we're not doing that because of some
things that are going on in the courts,
so could that change at some point, yes.
But but as of now we are not doing that.
ID just to vote on Election Day
all right. And so this is a primary.
So folks sometimes get kind of confused
when they go up to get their ballot.
Republicans, you're going to get a ballot
that has your Republican candidates.
Democrats are going to get a ballot
with all of your Democratic candidates.
You're not going to see all
the candidates because it is a
primary and so you get either.
One of the other.
What happens if someone
is an unaffiliated voter?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So like you said,
Democrats vote on the democratic slate.
Republicans on the Republican slate.
But an unaffiliated voter is different.
They can go in, and they'll be asked.
If they want to participate
in one party or the other,
so the unaffiliated comes in,
they get that choice and they
can pick only the Democrats
or only the Republicans,
not a mix of the two.
But still they do get that choice.
OK, gotcha. And so we already
have a question about will
there be sample ballots today?
I found one, but on the North
Carolina State Board of Elections
when I looked up my voter search.
But I don't know that is it on every
single website for each county.
Yeah, so we're working on getting a
big composite sample ballot together
that will be every contest for for
any generic voter that would walk in.
But also there is this voter search
you can link to it on our web page.
You can find it on the State Board of
Elections Web page and you can go and
find your very specific sample ballot
based on your specific address so we
can take the guesswork for you out of
you know what district do I live in?
Is there a primary for that so?
Find that link on our website for
the voter search and you can get
your sample ballot directly there.
Yeah, and really, your voter search
is putting in your name right it?
It can be your year of birth or not,
and then your county and then it's
going to give you all of your voter
information and then when you Scroll down,
you'll see the primary and
you can just click on that.