RALEIGH — The State Board of Elections on Tuesday recognized the Constitution Party of North Carolina as an official political party in the state.

Recognition of this party means voters now have another choice of party affiliation when registering to vote or updating an existing registration. Voters may register with the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, No Labels or Republican parties, or they can register as unaffiliated. This recognition also means that voters currently registered with a different political party or as unaffiliated may switch their affiliation to the Constitution Party if they wish.

The Constitution Party of North Carolina also will have candidates on ballots in November, which it chose during its 2024 nominating convention. They include Walter Vinny Smith for governor and Wayne Jones for lieutenant governor. A letter to the state board indicated that the party would have additional candidates, but the party did not want to disclose their names until it was recognized. The board set a deadline of July 23 for the Constitution Party to provide the names of its candidates for the 2024 general election.

The state board is updating voter registration applications to include the new political party option. Until then, voters may register with the new party by checking the “Other” box and writing “Constitution Party” on the line in the “Political Party Affiliation” section of the voter registration form.

State board voter data also will be updated to include the new party registrants.

According to a review by state board staff, the Constitution Party submitted 14,022 valid signatures from registered N.C. voters, 157 more than the required 13,855 signatures. The signatures were verified by the county boards of elections of the counties in which they were collected. The Constitution Party also received at least 200 signatures from three different congressional districts, a requirement of “political party” defined; creation of new party. N.C.G.S. § 163-96(a)(2).

Justice for All and We The People parties

As it pertains to the Justice for All and We The People petitions, state board staff, at the direction of members of the state board, continues to verify whether those groups complied with the statutory requirement for prospective parties to communicate the “purpose and intent” of the new parties to petition signers.

The board plans to meet again soon to decide whether to recognize We The People and Justice for All. There is still time for these groups to get their candidates on North Carolina ballots if they are recognized as official political parties.