State Board Recognizes N.C. Green Party, Appoints County Board of Elections Members | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Press Release:

    RALEIGH, N.C.     The Bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement on Tuesday appointed four members to each of the 100 county boards of elections and unanimously recognized the North Carolina Green Party as an official political party in the state.

    Recognition of the Green Party means voters now have another choice of party affiliation when registering to vote. Voters may register with the Democratic, Green, Libertarian or Republican parties, or they can register as unaffiliated. It also means that Green Party candidates, chosen by convention in 2018, will appear on ballots in this year's Nov. 6 general election.

    The State Board is updating and will distribute new voter registration forms that include the Green Party option. Until then, voters may register with the Green Party by checking the "Other" box and writing "Green" on the line in "Political Party Affiliation" section of the voter registration application.

    The N.C. Green Party applied to the State Board in December after a new state law allowed political parties with a candidate on the ballot in at least 70 percent of the states in the last presidential election to seek recognition. The Green Party's nominee for president in 2016, Jill Stein, was on ballots 38 states.

    The State Board also appointed four members - two Democrats and two Republicans - to the 100 county boards of elections. The names were chosen from lists provided by the state parties. These county board members will serve until at least June 25, 2019, or until their successors are sworn in.

    "We congratulate the 400 newly appointed county board members across the state and look forward to working with them to administer fair and accurate elections in 2018 and beyond," said Kim Westbrook Strach, State Board executive director.

    The county-by-county list of board appointees is available here.

    Finally, the board appointed panels to hear candidate challenges in six, multicounty General Assembly districts. They are as follows (chair in bold):

• House District 22: Bobby Ludlum, R-Bladen, chair; G.H. Wilson, D-Sampson; and Horace Bass, D-Sampson
• House District 67: Karmen Mock, R-Stanly; Ronald Wayne Burris Jr., D-Stanly, chair; David Black, R-Cabarrus
• Senate District 1: Johnny Sessoms III, D-Hertford; Alice Malesky, R-Currituck; William M. Sawyer, D-Camden; Donna Elms, R-Dare, chair; Alice Mackey, D-Hyde
• Senate District 11: John Shallcross, R-Johnston; Gordon C. Woodruff, D-Johnston; Kelly Shore, D-Nash
• Senate District 21: Jeff Long, R-Cumberland; Harvey Wright Raynor III, D-Cumberland, chair; Robert Vaughn, R-Hoke
• Senate District 34: Alan G. Carpenter, D-Iredell, chair; Paul Mills, R-Iredell; Claude Wiseman, R-Yadkin

• Contact: Patrick Ganon
•     patrick.gannon@ncsbe.gov