Candidate filing for 2022 elections will begin Feb. 24

Published 6:58 pm Wednesday, January 12, 2022

SALISBURY — After court-mandated halt to candidate filing for the 2022 election in December, the state Board of Elections announced Wednesday filing would resume next month.

Candidate filing for North Carolina’s 2022 primary elections will resume at 8 a.m. on Feb. 24, and end at noon on March 4, under an order issued Tuesday by the Superior Court of Wake County. The new filing period is also the result of a ruling from a three-judge panel that upheld state legislative and congressional districts maps that had been challenged in court until Tuesday.

The original candidate filing period for the 2022 election began Dec. 6 and was scheduled to end on Dec. 17. But the North Carolina Supreme Court on Dec. 8 halted the filing period and pushed back the date of the primary election from March 8 to May 17.

That date will remain the primary before the general election in November. The deadline to register to vote is April 22 for the primary election. Absentee by mail voting will begin March 28, and voters can request those ballots from the state Board of Elections website. Early voting is scheduled to begin April 28.

In December, the Rowan County Board of Elections unanimously selected an early voting plan for the 2022 primary election that included two Saturdays and one Sunday. It would have began Thursday, Feb. 17, and run through Saturday, March 5. Hours were scheduled for 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the two Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on one Sunday.

However, the N.C. Board of Elections says county boards will need to adopt early one-stop voting plans specifically for the new May primary, even if they’re the same the county originally adopted. If kept the same, early voting in Rowan County would begin on April 28 and end May 14.

The Rowan County Board of Elections is scheduled to meet Feb. 8 at 12:30 p.m. An agenda has not yet been released. Interested attendees can visit the elections office at 1935 Jake Alexander Blvd. West or tune into the meeting virtually via Zoom.

About Natalie Anderson

Natalie Anderson covers the city of Salisbury, politics and more for the Salisbury Post. She joined the staff in January 2020 after graduating from Louisiana State University, where she was editor of The Reveille newspaper. Email her at natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com or call her at 704-797-4246.

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