By Staff
In a press release this afternoon, Governor Pat McCrory announced the dates of the special election to replace Congressman Mel Watt in North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District. Watt resigned his Congressional seat Monday to become the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Essentially on May 6th the candidates running to replace Rep. Watt will appear on the ballot twice. Once for the Special Election and once for the Primary. The tough load to lift will be with individual candidates who will have to educate their voters on exactly how to fill out this possibly confusing ballot. With the State board of Elections estimating that an individual special election could cost as much as $1 million and the Constitution of the United States requiring that there be a special election, the decision clearly comes down to dollars and cents.
According to the release:
If a primary election is necessary, it will be held during the regularly scheduled primary date of May 6, 2014. Should a runoff be needed, it will be held July 15, 2014. The election to fill the seat will be held November 4, 2014, the general election date for all of North Carolina. Because of the various filing deadlines, ballot preparation time, state and federal calendar requirements for ballot access, voter registration deadlines and to avoid voter confusion, it was determined the most efficient process would be to roll the special election into the already established primary and general election dates.
