From county Soil and Water Conservation to county commissioners, state legislators and the presidency, the 2024 Election cycle officially begins with the candidate filing period Dec. 4-15.
Candidates for local and state races started filing at noon on Monday, Dec. 4, and will continue to do so through noon on Friday, Dec. 15, at the Macon County Board of Elections office, located on the bottom floor of the Macon County Courthouse at 5 W. Main St.
Two Macon County commissioner seats are up for election in 2023, the District 2 seat held by Josh Young and the District 3 seat held by Board Chair Paul Higdon. Filing fees for those seats are $112.73.
As of Tuesday, only Barry Breeden, of Franklin, had filed to run in District 3.
Regional partisan races include the N.C. Senate and N.C. House seats of Franklin Republicans Kevin Corbin and Karl Gillespie, respectively. Filing fees for those seats are $139.51.
Corbin filed for re-election the minute the filing period opened, surrounded by his friends and family.
The last day to withdraw as a candidate during the filing period is Dec. 12 by 5 p.m.
The partisan filing period is only for races that require the party affiliation (Democrat, Republican) of the candidate to be on the ballot. If there are two or more candidates from a single political party going for one office, then that race will be on the March 5, 2024, primary ballot.
Statewide races that could be on the primary ballot include governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and various judges. And then there’s the top-of-the-ticket race, the President of the United States. Any statewide seat or federal candidates are required to file for candidacy in the state capital, Raleigh.
Some local races won’t be on the ballot until the general election in November as they are non-partisan races. The filing period for those races is in June 2024. This filing period will be for the three Macon County Board of Education seats and one Macon Soil and Water Conservation seat. The three school board seats are those of District 4 (at-large) representative Jim Breedlove, District 3’s (Nantahala) Melissa Evans and District 1’s (Highlands) Hilary Wilkes.
Mike Breedlove currently occupies the Macon Soil and Water Conservation seat up for election in 2024. The filing fee for those seats is $4.