By Peter Vankevch
In North Carolina, if no candidate receives more than 30% of the vote in a primary, the second-place candidate can request a runoff.
Two of the state-wide Republican contests, for lieutenant governor and state auditor, fell into that category in this year’s March 5 primary so there will be an election.
Hal Weatherman and Jim O’Neill are the candidates for lieutenant governor and Jack Clark and David Boliek are vying for state auditor.
According to the North Carolina Board of Elections, in the Lt. governor primary, Weatherman received 181,818 votes (19.59%) and O’Neill got 147,042 (15.84%) votes.
In the state auditor race, Clark received 198,793 (23.24%) votes and Boliek got 189,071 (22.10%) of the votes.
Early voting on Ocracoke will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 2, and Friday, May 3, in the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department, 822 Irvin Garrish Hwy.
The official election day is May 14 with voting in the same location, 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Early voting on the mainland is in the Elections Office in the Public Safety Building, 1223 Main St. Swan Quarter, began April 25, and runs Monday, through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday, May 11, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
According to Viola Williams, Hyde County’s Elections Office director, the only ones who can vote in this election are registered Republicans and registered Unaffiliated voters that voted Republican in the primary and Registered Unaffiliated voters that did not vote in the primary.
The general election this year will be Tuesday, Nov. 5.
