Leading up to this year's election, the Center is offering a variety of tips for nonprofits about nonpartisan voter registration and voter education. We encourage you to share these tips with your staff, board, and the people you serve. This week’s tip: check your voter registration.
The voter search page at the NC State Board of Elections is a must-click resource for every North Carolinian planning to vote. Just enter your name, click on “search”, and click on the option for the one that looks like you based on the full name, county, and ZIP Code. Once you are there, check out the following information:
- Your address. If you no longer live at the address where you are currently registered to vote, you’ll need to update your address to be eligible to vote in North Carolina. If you are planning to vote on Election Day, you’ll need to submit a new voter registration form with your current address to your county board of elections at least 25 days before Election Day. If you have moved within the same county, you can also update your registration with your new address during the Early Voting period.
- Your political affiliation. Most North Carolinians are registered as either “Unaffiliated” (36.68% of NC voters), Democrat (32.52% of NC voters), or Republican (30.01% of NC voters). If you are registered with a party (which also can include the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and No Labels parties in addition to the two major parties), you can only receive that party’s ballot in the primary election. However, if you are registered as Unaffiliated, you can choose any party’s ballot in the primary election, so you have the opportunity to be strategic about choosing the ballot with the most options in the races that matter to you the most. If this paragraph just convinced you to change your registration to Unaffiliated, you can still make that change for the election by updating your voter registration at least 25 days before Election Day.
- Your polling place. If you plan to vote on Election Day, then you need to vote at the specified polling place for your precinct. During Early Voting, you can vote at any one-stop voting site in your county.
- Your sample ballots. North Carolina features long ballots in the election. Take time to review your sample ballot. And if you are registered as Unaffiliated, you can compare the sample ballots for the various parties to decide which one makes the most sense for you to use during the primary election.
