March 6, 2008 issue
State Board of Elections Announces Presidential Primary Ballot
Story by Kathleen McFadden
John McCain has secured the GOP nomination for president by winning—by the Associated Press’s count—1,232 delegates, and President Bush endorsed his candidacy on Wednesday, but the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama is still alive. Although Clinton won the primaries in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio on Tuesday and Obama only picked up Vermont, he still leads Clinton in number of delegates.
So the tough race in the Democrat Party makes the remaining primaries more important than they might be in other years, and the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced on Wednesday the names of the presidential candidates who will appear on the May 6 primary election ballot.
On the Democrat Party ballot, voters can choose among Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Mike Gravel (former U.S. senator from Alaska) and No Preference. According to the Democratic National Convention website and The New York Times, North Carolina has a total of 134 Democratic delegates. Of those, 19 are superdelegates—party and elected officials who could decide the Democratic nominee if neither Clinton nor Obama obtains an outright majority of elected delegates.
On the Republican Party ballot, voters can choose among Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul and No Preference.
According to Republican Source and The New York Times, North Carolina has 69 total Republican delegates.
Remaining Primaries and Caucuses in 2008
Voters in several states still get to cast their ballots for presidential candidates between now and the end of June. On the GOP side, these primaries and caucuses represent 467 delegates. On the Democrat side, they represent 729 delegates.
March 11—Mississippi (39 GOP delegates; 40 Democrat delegates)
April 5—Virgin Islands (9 GOP delegates)
April 22—Pennsylvania (74 GOP delegates; 188 Democrat delegates)
May 3—Guam (9 Democrat delegates)
May 6—Indiana (57 GOP delegates; 84 Democrat delegates) and North Carolina (69 GOP delegates; 134 Democrat delegates)
May 13—West Virginia (39 Democrat delegates)
May 17—Hawaii Caucus (20 GOP delegates)
May 20—Kentucky (45 GOP delegates; 60 Democrat delegates) and Oregon (30 GOP delegates; 65 Democrat delegates)
May 27—Idaho (32 GOP delegates; nonbinding for Democrats)
June 3—Montana (24 Democrat delegates), New Mexico (32 GOP delegates) and South Dakota (27 GOP delegates; 23 Democrat delegates)
June 7—Puerto Rico Caucus (63 Democrat delegates)
June 28—Nebraska Caucus (33 GOP delegates)
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