"Voter guides" like one published by ncvoter.org can deceive voters. Misleading news reports also hide North Carolina's third party candidates from voters.
A voter in Greenville, NC, Tom, recently sent this message to an independent candidate for state office: "Based on qualifications, I gave you my vote.”
Tom then explained how he scoured several sources to learn about the candidate, but noted: "... you do not appear on some of the published voting guides."
Guides that exclude candidates who are on the ballot can mislead voters who are not as persistent as Tom. Can this problem be fixed?
Misleading guides and news reports that suppress independent candidates are too common. The major parties, political activist organizations, and editorial groups in the media all participate in the suppression.
For example, the group democracync.org publishes a voter guide and an online voter resource called ncvoter.org. The hard copy guide is distributed at events like the recent NPHC of Pitt County Candidate's Forum.
It is also promoted in a mass mailing to households across North Carolina by the group Fair Courts Now.
The online version appeared fourth in a recent online search for "North Carolina voter guides." This is a massive operation that results in promoting two-party candidates and hiding independent candidates.
This at a time when independent voters comprise almost 40% of the electorate -- the largest voting block in North Carolina.
As illustrated in the above quote from Tom, voters who look at only two-party guides may miss the candidates they like best. In this way, suppressing candidate information distorts the vote.
Misleading
Ncvoter.org identifies itself as non-partisan. The header on the homepage at ncvoter.org says: "Your non-partisan resource for voting in North Carolina." While this may be their intent, it is not reflected in the voter guide they print.
The common understanding of "non-partisan" is something that includes all participating political groups. Yet, this guide excludes the Green, Constitution, and Libertarian candidates who are on the ballot in North Carolina Council of State races.
A person on the ncvoter.org voter hotline was asked why they excluded candidates from their guide. She did not have an answer, but she advised going to another voter guide, such asvote411.org, produced by the League of Women Voters.
She also advised contacting democracync.org for more answers.
Julia Hawes, Communications Director at Democracy NC, responded “… this is based on a practical challenge for the guides, which is printing space (and ultimately costs of printing the guides).”
She continued: “… due to space restraints we do not profile candidates for Governor with under 5% of support, based on nonpartisan polling at the time of publication.
“Because of these limitations we try to consistently and repeatedly direct our readers to our digital guide at ncvoter.org/guide so that they can get the full slate of candidates, which we do feel is very important.”
Misleading part two
News sources will also hide and misreport facts about independent candidates.
On October 3, WUNC released a news story on the NC State Auditor race. The story excluded any mention of Libertarian candidate Bob Drach, who happens to be the only accountant running for Auditor.
Promoting the article on social media platform X, WUNC.org posted: "Republican Dave Boliek is challenging incumbent Democrat Jessica Holmes, who was appointed to replace Beth Wood." No mention of candidate Bob Drach.
This misreporting falls short of their vision statement: "WUNC is a trusted source of objective and transformational content..." In this case the editors deliberately excluded a candidate. As with ncvoter.org, the result was a partisan piece that could mislead voters.
It is not just one news organization behaving this way. The online journal The Assembly in their story “Ten North Carolina Races to Watch in 2024” listed the Auditor race and excluded one of the three candidates. Why? Who does that benefit?
Others offer reasons
Other organizations limit coverage of independent candidates but offer explanations. According to several sources, wikipedia.org may list all candidates but feature images only for candidates from parties that received 5% or more of the vote in prior election cycles.
Policies like the "5% rule" have the effect of hiding or reducing the visibility of independent candidates vis a vis the major party candidates.
As an alternative,Ballotpedia.orgdistinguishes "Major Party" candidates and lists these first. But they follow with the exact same information for all other candidates.
The hidden NC candidates
There are seven independent candidates on the ballot in 2024 for North Carolina Council of State offices.
Good information is available on these candidates from a variety of sources which appear to be actually non-partisan. These include: vote411.org, ballotpedia.org,branch.vote, the News and Observer, Triad City Beat, WRAL, the online version of ncvoter.org and many others.
Not all "non-partisan" and "trusted sources of objective content" are either. Consumers of election information, as with consumers everywhere, must heed: caveat emptor.
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