A reporter's guide to NC municipal elections

This story first appeared in the WUNC Politics Newsletter. To subscribe for a free weekly update on North Carolina politics, click here.

Hundreds of North Carolina cities and towns from Murphy to Manteo — and Canton to Calabash — will elect mayors and municipal boards on Nov. 4. If you’re not in a larger community, finding news coverage of the candidates and issues can be tricky.

Here at WUNC, we’ve got coverage of the municipal elections in Cary, Chapel Hill and Durham available here. But if you live in a smaller town, or you’re outside the Triangle, you might find that Googling your election or candidates leaves you with more questions than answers.

I’m right there with you: Living in the Raleigh suburb of Wendell, news about municipal issues is often limited. So here’s what I do to use my journalism skills to make an informed choice:

Start with a sample ballot: Enter your name on the State Board of Elections website, and see if you’ve got an election this year (some voters live in an unincorporated area, or in a community like Raleigh that moved municipal elections to even-numbered years). The “find your sample ballot” section will show you exactly what’s on your ballot. Several towns are also holding a referendum on things like tax rates and alcohol sales.

Contact the candidates: Most candidates have set up easy-to-find websites or Facebook pages, but often they feature vague platitudes that don’t give you a good sense for how they differ from their opponents (what the heck is “smart growth,” anyway?).

Talking to them directly can be more insightful — and at the local level, they usually have time to answer your questions personally. Most county board of elections websites have a “candidate list” that shows an email address and phone number for each candidate. I like to send out a short, specific list of questions that helps me understand the candidates’ priorities for our town and where they might disagree:

• If the town received a multimillion-dollar grant for parks, amenities and other infrastructure, what projects would you want to see funded immediately? (This gives you a sense for their big priorities as they spend tax dollars)
• What’s a specific decision made by the current town board that you would have voted against? (This helps you understand where the divisions are among candidates. I learned that a major fault line in Wendell politics involves the town board’s decision to approve a small townhouse development near my neighborhood).
• How many town board meetings have you attended in the past year? (These meetings can be tedious and wonky, and it takes a special sort of person to show up to them voluntarily — but that’s how you learn how local government works.)
  

If you’re curious to see how candidates respond, I posted the answers I got from Wendell candidates here.

You also might get a visit from the candidates or their campaign at your doorstep. Dustin Ingalls, a town commission candidate in Wendell, said "door knocking is really important" in his campaign.

"If you're having a conversation, you can kind of drill down to 'what are you concerned about? How can I address it?'" he said.

Some towns have candidate forums or meet-and-great events hosted by a neutral party like the local chamber of commerce.

A couple of other things to consider as you research your choices:

• Party labels aren’t as useful at the local level: In fast-growing communities, the biggest divides center around growth and development issues. Wendell, for example, has a Republican and Democrat teaming up in support of more limitations on development. In other towns, the race could center on a single local issue: A plan to close the police department in the Wilson County town of Stantonsburg is a popular election topic there. Most local races are nonpartisan, so you’d have to do extra work to find out the candidates’ party affiliation. And in some places, all the candidates might be from the same political party. That said, county-level Democratic and Republican party organizations often do issue endorsements.
• Beware of overpromisers: Plenty of well-intentioned people run for local office without a full understanding of what a municipal board can — and can’t — legally control. The state legislature puts a lot of restrictions on local government, and many decisions must be made at a higher level. If a candidate tells you they’ll widen the highway leading into town, or bring in a Chick-fil-A restaurant, you should probably be skeptical.
• Your vote can make a big difference: While it’s unlikely in state or national races, you really could cast the deciding vote in your municipal election. Nearly every year, some small town in North Carolina ends up with a tied vote count and has to pick a winner by flipping a coin.