With a drawing and a coin flip, the State Board of Elections on Friday, Dec. 15, randomly determined the order of candidates on the ballot for the 2024 primary and general elections in North Carolina.
The 2024 candidate filing period ended at noon Friday. Lists of candidates may be found on the State Board website: Candidate Lists.
Pursuant to Arrangement of official ballots (N.C.G.S. § 163-165.6(c)), the State Board is required to randomly determine the order by last name of candidates on the ballot. The order was determined by a two-step process. First, a ball was selected out of a bingo machine, with the letter on the ball corresponding with the first letter of the last name of the candidate to be listed first on the ballot. Second, a coin was flipped, with the side facing up corresponding to whether the candidates will be listed in alphabetical order (“heads”) or reverse alphabetical order (“tails”).
The letter on the ball selected from the bingo machine was the letter “D,” meaning candidates whose last names begin with the letter “D” will appear first in contests in the primary and general elections. The subsequent coin flip showed “heads” facing up, meaning that additional candidates will follow in alphabetical order as follows: E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C.
This ballot order drawing applies to all 2024 primary and general election contests except for municipal contests. Candidates for municipal office are listed in strict alphabetical order beginning with A, according to state law.
The ballot order selection process was streamed live on Webex.
The 2024 primary election is March 5. The general election is Nov. 5.