Barry Smith - In the Loop

Would you like North Carolina’s presidential primary to come earlier in the year?

Currently, it comes in May, when we go to the polls for other primaries, such as governor, Congress, General Assembly and county commissioner. Most presidential election years, the late date means that the issue has already decided when it comes time for North Carolina voters to have their say. Last year was different, for Democrats anyway. Barack Obama’s primary victory in North Carolina helped propel him to his party’s nomination. The rest is history.

But North Carolina Democrats and unaffiliated voters didn’t get the opportunity to choose from other Democratic presidential candidates, who’d long sense dropped out of the race. Nor did the state’s Republicans and potential unaffiliated voters have a real option to influence who’d lead the GOP ticket.

If state Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Davie, gets his way, that could all change. His bill would make the North Carolina presidential primary about three months earlier, on the first Tuesday in February, beginning with the 2012 presidential season.

In recent years, efforts to make the state’s presidential primary earlier have not succeeded. Cost is a factor. It costs millions of dollars to set up polling places across the state

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