Ballot breakdown: Make your vote count

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - Tuesday marks an important date in the 2020 election process.

North Carolina is one of 14 states holding a primary election on Super Tuesday.

Just five Democrats and two Republicans are vying for a shot at the presidency.

More than two dozen have dropped out of the race. Democratic hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have both dropped out within the past 24 hours.

If you are voting on a democratic or independent party ballot, beware there will be names of candidates who are no longer in the running.

“There are candidates on the ballot that have ended their campaigns, they are not actively seeking the presidency anymore and those names are going to be on the ballot. It’s really up to voters when they go tomorrow to be informed about what candidates are still actively campaigning and make sure they cast their votes for those,” said Brunswick County Elections Director Sara Knotts.

Many ballots were finalized in December, so any candidate running at that time will be on the ballot come Super Tuesday.

There are now just five candidates running for the Democratic nomination including Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

If you are voting on a Republican ballot, you will not run into this concern because both President Trump and William Weld are still running.

If you voted early, and the candidate you voted for has dropped out of the race, you will not be able to vote again on Super Tuesday.

“I got a call and he was wondering if there was a way to get another chance to vote and, unfortunately, in North Carolina the way the law is written, once you vote early that is your vote. You don’t get to go back and vote again or get a re-do. It’s done,” Knotts said.

Knotts reminds voters they can print a sample ballot at home to help familiarize themself with their ballot before heading to the booth.

“You can print a sample ballot from the internet, you can mark it up and you can use it to mark your ballot,” she said.

You can find sample ballots here.

She also stressed the importance of knowing where your correct precinct.

“The best advice for voting tomorrow is one, make sure you know where you’re supposed to go. You need to go to the polling place of your assigned precinct based on where you live so unlike early voting where you can go anywhere in the county, you need to go to the correct location to get the correct ballot,” Knotts said.

As a reminder, you will not be able to register to vote on Super Tuesday and you do not need to show a photo ID.

Most polling places open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

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