The Green Party has become North Carolina's fourth official political party thanks to a new law offering more options to qualify, giving more candidate choices to some voters this fall.
The state elections board unanimously accepted the application of the Green Party of North Carolina on Tuesday. Its candidates can now automatically be put on state ballots through at least 2020.
They join the Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians as official state parties for federal, state and local offices in North Carolina.
The decision also means registered voters can now officially affiliate with the Green Party.
It had been difficult for smaller groups to become official parties because they had to collect more than 90,000 signatures of voters.
A law approved last October reduces the number of signatures for parties to qualify and also gives them another qualification route if their candidates appeared on ballots in at least 35 states in the last presidential election. The Green Party is using this new qualification method.