Special to Iredell Free News

RALEIGH — The Judicial Voter Guide: 2024 Primary Election is now available online at the State Board of Elections website.

The guide contains information about candidates for North Carolina’s appellate courts, the North Carolina Supreme Court and North Carolina Court of Appeals, who have primary contests in 2024. Candidates for appellate offices are elected statewide. Candidates for other judicial offices are not elected statewide and are not included in this guide.

Primary Election Day is March 5.

The Judicial Voter Guide for the 2024 primary election is available online only. The Judicial Voter Guide for the 2024 general election will be mailed to all N.C. households later this year. It will also be available online.

In the primary, there are two contested appellate court contests — a Democratic primary for NC Supreme Court Associate Justice Seat 6 and a Republican primary for NC Court of Appeals Judge Seat 15.

Absentee-by-mail voting for the 2024 primary has begun. The in-person early voting period runs from February 15 through March 2.

For more information about the primary, visit Upcoming Election.

To vote in a party primary, you must be registered with that political party or be an unaffiliated voter and choose the ballot of candidates for that party.

About the Appellate Courts

The N.C. Supreme Court is the state’s highest court. One chief justice and six associate justices review cases from the N.C. Court of Appeals, the N.C. Business Court, and cases in which the death penalty has been imposed. For more information, see Supreme Court of North Carolina.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals reviews cases first decided in District and Superior Courts, as well as appeals from administrative agencies. There are a total of 15 judges on the Court of Appeals, and appeals are decided by rotating panels of three judges who consider errors in legal procedures or in judicial interpretation of the law. For more information, see North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges serve eight-year terms.