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North Carolina Auditor election, 2016
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March 15, 2016[1] |
November 8, 2016 |
Beth Wood (D) |
Beth Wood (D) |
Governor • Lt. Governor Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Auditor • Insurance Commissioner Agriculture Commissioner Superintendent of Schools • Treasurer Labor Commissioner |
December 21, 2015 |
March 15, 2016[2] |
June 9, 2016 |
July 26, 2016 |
November 8, 2016 |
January 7, 2017 |
North Carolina held an election for auditor on November 8, 2016. Incumbent Beth Wood (D) won election to a third term.
Overview
The North Carolina state auditor acts as a watchdog for the state government and provides citizens, legislators, and government officials with independent evaluations of North Carolina's financial records and performance reports.
North Carolina has been under Republican trifecta control since Governor Pat McCrory (R) assumed office in 2013. This represented a fairly rapid shift in partisan control for the state, which had been under Democratic trifecta control as recently as 2010. Former Auditor Leslie Merritt (R), whom incumbent Beth Wood (D) unseated in the 2008 general election, was the only Republican to win the seat in the last century.
Wood ran for a third term in 2016. She and Republican Charles Stuber, former chief investigator for the State Board of Elections, were the sole candidates to file to run for the seat. Therefore, neither appeared on the ballot in the March 15 primary election; both candidates automatically advanced to the general election. Wood won the general election on November 8, 2016.
Candidates
Beth Wood (D)
Incumbent state auditor since 2009
Charles Stuber (R)
Former chief investigator, State Board of Elections
Results
General election
Incumbent Beth Wood defeated Charles Stuber in the North Carolina auditor election.
| North Carolina Auditor, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Beth Wood Incumbent |
50.03% | 2,232,554 | |
| Republican | Charles Stuber | 49.97% | 2,230,147 | |
| Total Votes | 4,462,701 | |||
| Source: ABC11 | ||||
Primary elections
Incumbent Democrat Beth Wood and Republican Charles Stuber, former chief investigator for the State Board of Elections, were the sole candidates to file to run for the seat. Therefore, neither appeared on the ballot in the March 15 primary election ballot.
Context of the 2016 election
Primary elections
A primary election is an election in which voters select the candidate they believe should represent a political party in a general election. Primaries usually take place several months before a general election. North Carolina utilizes a hybrid primary system. Parties decide who may vote in their respective primaries. Voters may choose a primary ballot without impacting their unaffiliated status.[4]
In North Carolina, when more than two candidates run in a primary election and one candidate does not receive more than 40 percent of the vote, the second-place candidate can request a runoff primary, sometimes referred to as a second primary. However, because of the redrawing of congressional and state legislative district boundaries, state executive elections in 2016 did not feature a runoff primary. This means the 2016 primary elections for state executives were unique and particularly competitive in that the winning candidate automatically received the party nomination regardless of the percentage of votes received.
North Carolina's primary elections took place on March 15, 2016.
Incumbent Beth Wood (D)
Incumbent Beth Wood was first elected in 2008, unseating incumbent Auditor Leslie Merritt (R) by a margin of 7 percentage points. She defeated Republican challenger Debra Goldman in 2012's general election also by about 7 percent. Wood is a certified public accountant and previously worked in the offices of both the state auditor and state treasurer. She left the auditor's office in 2007 to teach professional courses for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants. Immediately before her election, Wood worked for the American Institute of CPAs as a case investigator of allegedly sub-standard audits.[5][6]
Party control in North Carolina
North Carolina had been under Republican trifecta control since Governor Pat McCrory (R) assumed office in 2013. This represented a fairly rapid shift in partisan control for the state, which had been under Democratic trifecta control as recently as 2010. North Carolina's electoral votes went to the Republican presidential candidate in every election cycle since 1980, with the exception of 2008 when the state voted to elect Barack Obama (D).[7] North Carolina began attracting significant attention as a presidential battleground state with Obama's unexpected 2008 win in the state—the first Democratic candidate to do so since Jimmy Carter (D) in 1976. For the past two presidential elections, the state's presidential preference influenced statewide elections. This influence, coupled with the recent trend of close elections in the state, promised competitive races in 2016.
Both Republican and Democratic candidates gained success in recent elections. Democrat Bev Perdue won the gubernatorial election and Democrat Kay Hagan defeated incumbent Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2008. The state swung back to Republicans in 2012 when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney narrowly beat President Obama by a margin of 2 percentage points. McCrory defeated his Democratic rival by a small margin of victory that same year. The trend of close statewide elections in North Carolina continued into 2014: Republican Thom Tillis narrowly defeated incumbent Senator Kay Hagan (D) in a statewide race that year, earning 48.8 percent of the vote to Hagan's 47.3 percent.[8]
At the time of the 2016 election, the office of state auditor in North Carolina had been held by Democrats for over a century. Leslie Merritt (R), whom incumbent Beth Wood (D) unseated in the 2008 general election, was the only Republican to win the seat in the past 100 years.[9][10][11]
North Carolina Party Control: 1992-2025
Fourteen years of Democratic trifectas • Four years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| House | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
Campaigns
Campaign media
Note: If a candidate is not listed below, Ballotpedia staff were unable to locate any campaign media for that candidate. Do you know of any? Tell us!
Democrats
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Republicans
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About the office
- See also: North Carolina State Auditor
The North Carolina state auditor is an elected executive position in the North Carolina state government. The Office of the Auditor acts as a watchdog for the state government and provides citizens, legislators, and government officials with independent evaluations of North Carolina's financial records and performance reports.[12]
Incumbent
The incumbent was Beth Wood.
Authority
The state Constitution establishes the office of auditor in Article III, Section 7:
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(1) Officers. A Secretary of State, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Superintendent of Public Instruction, an Attorney General, a Commissioner of Agriculture, a Commissioner of Labor, and a Commissioner of Insurance shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State in 1972 and every four years thereafter, at the same time and places as members of the General Assembly are elected. Their term of office shall be four years and shall commence on the first day of January next after their election and continue until their successors are elected and qualified. ...[13] |
Elections
The auditor in North Carolina is popularly elected every four years, in presidential election years. The auditor, barring any vacancies, will be elected in 2016, 2020 and 2024. The term of office is four years, and begins on the first day of January following their election.[13]
2016
- See also: North Carolina Auditor election, 2016
The general election for state auditor was held on November 8, 2016.
Incumbent Beth Wood defeated Charles Stuber in the North Carolina auditor election.
| North Carolina Auditor, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Beth Wood Incumbent |
50.03% | 2,232,554 | |
| Republican | Charles Stuber | 49.97% | 2,230,147 | |
| Total Votes | 4,462,701 | |||
| Source: ABC11 | ||||
Full history
To view the electoral history dating back to 2000 for the office of North Carolina Auditor, click [show] to expand the section. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2012 Incumbent Beth Wood (D) successfully won re-election, defeating Debra Goldman (R) in the November 6, 2012 general election.
On November 4, 2008, Beth A. Wood won election to the office of North Carolina Auditor. She defeated Leslie Merritt (R) in the general election.
2004 On November 2, 2004, Leslie Merritt won election to the office of North Carolina Auditor. He defeated Ralph Campbell (D) in the general election.
2000 On November 7, 2000, Ralph Campbell won election to the office of North Carolina Auditor. He defeated Leslie Merritt (R) in the general election.
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Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms North Carolina Auditor Election 2016. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
State profile
| Demographic data for North Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 10,035,186 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 48,618 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 69.5% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 21.5% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 2.5% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 1.2% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.4% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 8.8% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 85.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 28.4% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $46,868 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 20.5% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in North Carolina. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
North Carolina voted Republican in six out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, six are located in North Carolina, accounting for 2.91 percent of the total pivot counties.[14]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. North Carolina had six Retained Pivot Counties, 3.31 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More North Carolina coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in North Carolina
- United States congressional delegations from North Carolina
- Public policy in North Carolina
- Endorsers in North Carolina
- North Carolina fact checks
- More...
See also
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North Carolina government: |
Previous elections: |
Ballotpedia exclusives: |
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The primary for U.S. congressional elections was rescheduled to June 7, 2016, following legal challenges to North Carolina's district maps. State races were unaffected.
- ↑ The primary for U.S. congressional elections was rescheduled to June 7, 2016, following legal challenges to North Carolina's district maps. State races were unaffected.
- ↑ http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article20213874.html
- ↑ NC Election Connection, "Who Can Vote in Which Elections?" accessed January 3, 2014
- ↑ North Carolina Auditor, "Beth A. Wood," accessed December 19, 2011
- ↑ Beth Wood Campaign.com, "Career highlights," accessed December 19, 2011
- ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, "Historical Election Results," accessed September 15, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "11/04/2014 Official General Election Results - Statewide," accessed August 30, 2015
- ↑ Ballotpedia was unable to locate party affiliation information on state auditors who served prior to 1893.
- ↑ Our Campaigns, "Auditor-History," accessed September 20, 2016
- ↑ Carolana.com, "North Carolina State Government-State Auditor," accessed September 23, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina Auditor, "Key Facts," accessed Sept. 30, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "North Carolina State Constitution," accessed Sept. 30, 2015
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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