2020 North Carolina election

Esta nota también está disponible en español en La Noticia.

About a third of Latinos eligible to vote in North Carolina have yet to register.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris had to cancel a planned trip to Asheville last week when two staffers tested positive for COVID-19.  On Wednesday, the California Senator made it to Western North Carolina, speaking at an event at UNC Asheville.

Five candidates are running for three seats on Asheville City Council in the current election.  While there are differences on a variety of issues, there is one topic the majority of candidates agree on, and it deals with changing the duties of council members.

Early voting is underway in North Carolina, as voters will decide elections at the federal, state and local levels.  There are several offices where district lines were redrawn for this election.  That includes North Carolina State Senate District 48, which still consists of all of Henderson and Transylvania Counties, but now also includes eastern Buncombe County.

BPR News Presents: 2020 Local Election Special, is a production of the Blue Ridge Public Radio news team.  It's three segments include an interview with Buncombe County elections director Corinne Duncan, and portions of two candidate forums done on the BPR Facebook page - for Asheville City Council, and for

On February 7th  Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum with three candidates running for the Republican nomination for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina.  All told, 11 candidates are running in the GOP primary.  Each were invited to participate in two forums BPR held.  This forum features three of them – Wayne King, Vance Patterson, and Albert Wiley.  Early voting for the primary election in North Carolina runs until February 29th.  Those who have not registered to vote yet will only be able to do so during the early voting period.

Democrats have seen a sharp drop in voter registration in North Carolina's seven westernmost counties over the past four years.  Republicans have seen a similar increase during the same timeframe, as well as those registering as unaffiliated in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain Counties.

Candidate filing in North Carolina for the 2020 primary election ended on December 20th.  The primary will be held on March 3rd, 2020.  The deadline to register to vote on that day is February 7th, 2020.  There is no same day registration on primary day.  There is same day registration during the early voting period before the primary.  Early voting for the 2020 primary election runs from February 13th to 29th.  The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail for the primary election is February 25th, 2020.