‘Between terrible and abysmal’: Low turnout expected in NC runoff elections Tuesday

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Runoff elections will occur Tuesday in North Carolina, though very few voters are expected to participate.

Chris Cooper, an expert on state politics at Western Carolina University, says he expects “turnout somewhere between terrible and abysmal.”

With the early voting period now having ended, the NC State Board of Elections said Monday 36,734 ballots had been cast out of nearly 5 million eligible voters. That puts turnout at 0.7 percent so far.

In the initial primary in March, turnout was 24.1 percent.

“It looks like turnout is down even for a runoff,” said Cooper. “Runoffs themselves are a southern phenomenon. It’s like NASCAR or sweet tea to some degree, you really don’t see runoff races at all outside the United States South.”

There are statewide runoffs to choose the Republican Party’s nominees for lieutenant governor and auditor after no candidates reached the required 30 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.

The lieutenant governor candidates are Hal Weatherman, former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, and Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill. The winner will face Democratic state Sen. Rachel Hunt in November.

The auditor’s race features Jack Clark, a CPA, and Dave Boliek, an attorney and a member of UNC’s Board of Trustees. The winner will face Jessica Holmes, a Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper appointed to fill the position after Beth Wood’s resignation.

Republicans also have a high-profile runoff in the 13th Congressional District. However, Kelly Daughtry announced earlier this month she’s suspending her campaign and supporting her opponent Brad Knott following former President Trump endorsement of Knott in the race.

It’s too late to remove candidates from the ballot, so Daughtry’s name will still appear on it. Knott continues to campaign and to try to turn out voters. Republicans in the General Assembly redrew the district to favor the GOP in November’s general election.

There are no runoffs Tuesday on the Democratic side, and registered Democrats cannot participate in the GOP runoffs. Unaffiliated voters who chose the Republican ballot during the March primary or who did not vote at all can participate in the runoff.

“All too often we see low turnout in second primary elections. Yet, votes cast in these contests will decide the nominees of the Republican Party for the general election,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the NC State Board of Elections.

Brinson Bell said a statewide election costs about $17 million to run. She noted the runoff’s cost will be lower, as there are fewer resources needed. For example, some counties have consolidated precincts.

“But, it will be in the millions of dollars because we do still administer the election for all eligible voters,” she said.

During a legislative hearing last month, Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) noted the complaints he was hearing from some county officials about the cost to hold the runoff.

He questioned the need for 17 days of early voting during the runoff election. Brinson Bell suggested lawmakers could restore flexibility to counties to set hours for early voting rather than reduce the number of days for voting.

Chris Cooper wrote a piece published Monday in the Assembly regarding the low-turnout runoff and North Carolina’s experiment with ranked-choice voting more than a decade ago.

“And, it looked like the people really like it. But, at the same time, there were some administrative problems,” he said.

State lawmakers have lowered the threshold to avoid a runoff, which Cooper noted has resulted in fewer runoff elections occurring. But, he noted if runoffs were eliminated entirely, you could have a candidate win a crowded primary field with support from only a small percentage of voters.

“Somebody can essentially waltz into Congress with very, very few votes on their side,” he said. “There is no perfect system, right? There are benefits and there are drawbacks from every kind of system we can choose. And, I think we’re seeing the drawback on this one: really low turnout.”

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