Most municipal elections in North Carolina are in odd-numbered years, which means they don’t line up with federal elections (held in even-numbered years) or state elections (also held in even-numbered years.)
Over the past decade, a number of municipalities in the state have switched to even-year elections: Winston-Salem, Asheville, Raleigh, Lincolnton, and all of the towns in Stanly and Surry Counties now hold their municipal elections in even-numbered years.
Two days ago, we were able to test the effect of even-year municipal elections locally, due to the Carrboro special town council election held on November 5.
Here’s what we learned:
There are way more people who vote in municipal elections in even years
At least 9,674 people voted in the 2024 municipal election in Carrboro (additional ballots are still being counted), compared to 4,356 voters in the municipal election in 2023. That’s a 122% increase in turnout.
This is in line with what’s happened with other municipalities.
We spoke with elections guru Gerry Cohen last year about switching to even-year elections. He told us that turnout increased in other municipalities that switched to even-year elections in terms of renters, newer voters, younger voters, and minorities.
It’s cheaper to hold even-year elections for municipalities
Cohen also told us last year that: “we know that … costs to local government to pay for conducting the election are substantially lower.” That’s because the election infrastructure is already in place for the statewide and federal elections–the polling locations, the early voting sites, the ballot printing–and so there really aren’t extra costs for the local government.
It eliminates one of the three biennial cycles and may enhance competition in the races for Orange County commissioner
In Chapel Hill and Carrboro, we currently have three election cycles every two years. It begins with the municipal elections in November of odd years, continues with the primaries in spring of even years, and then the statewide elections in November of even years. That’s three elections in 12 months.
A lot of civic activity is spun up for each November election, and that means that there’s simply not as much energy invested in the spring primaries. This impacts the Orange County commissioner races. Because our county is so overwhelmingly Democratic, the spring primary the only time there is real competition for county commission seats. One reason the commissioner races are often uncontested, we suspect, is because it’s hard to gear up for yet another round of electioneering.