News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

Elections offices are busy getting ready for upcoming elections. A new law allows registration and voting at the same time during early voting. North Carolina law requires voters to register 25 days before an election.

The new law still won't allow voters to register and vote on election day, but will allow anyone to register and vote during early voting.

I talked with Cherie Poucher from the Wake County Board of Elections today. She said to remind voters if you're going to take advantage of the new law to make sure you bring a driver's license with you because you need ID. You also need current proof of address if your license isn't up to day. That would mean you have to show a utility bill or something like that.

Wake County also has an experiment beginning Thursday with a new runoff process. In the past if a candidate did not get a majority of votes there would be a runoff election. That's expensive and very few voters show up for a runoff. The new instant runoff allows voters to pick a first, second, and third choice. This means there's no need for a second election and about a week later once the original election was certified we would know who won the runoff based upon those special instant runoff ballots.

If this works, expect the legislature to expand this pilot program.

Enjoy the rain this weekend and stay in to watch Political Connections! It airs tonight at 6:00 and Sunday at 11am. This week we talk about immigration with U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx and NC Rep. Ruth Samuelson.