With a drawing and a coin flip, the State Board of Elections on Friday (Dec. 20) randomly determined the order of candidates on the ballot for the 2020 primary and general elections in North Carolina.
The 2020 candidate filing period ended at noon Friday. Lists of candidates may be found on the State Board of Elections’ website here: 2020 Candidate Filing Folder | NCSBE Public Files.
Pursuant to Arrangement of official ballots (N.C.G.S. § 163-165.6), the State Board is required to randomly determine the order of candidates on the ballot. The order was determined by selecting a ball out of a bingo machine, with the letter on the ball corresponding with a candidate’s last name.
Candidates whose last names begin with the letter “O” will appear first in contests in the primary and general elections. A subsequent coin flip determined that additional candidates will follow in alphabetical order as follows: O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N.
The ballot order selection process was streamed on Facebook Live and is available on the State Board’s Facebook page.