North Carolina primary voters will make their choice for Congress Tuesday, and the turnout may be skewed in a way that could have a down-ballot effect.
More Republicans than Democrats voted in the March 15 primary, but the margin was only about 10,000 votes out of more than 2 million votes cast between the two parties.
But the unequal number of contested elections in this second primary could widen that gap.
For example, in the Sixth Congressional District, which includes a big part of Guilford County, there are two Republicans running in the primary: incumbent Mark Walker and challenger, Chris Hardin. But on the other side, there's only one Democrat, Pete Glidewell.
And that might drive up Republican turnout, because GOP voters will have a real choice to make.
The Sixth is one of five North Carolina districts with a contested Republican field but only one Democrat. There's only one district that's the other way around - District 11 in western North Carolina, where two Democrats are vying for the chance to go up against incumbent Republican Mark Meadows.
If Republicans across the state do turn out in bigger numbers, it could make a difference in the other statewide contest on the ballot - the race for a seat on the state's Supreme Court.
The GOP-led state legislature passed a law last year to make the supreme court primary a retention election, in which voters would give incumbent Robert Edmunds a thumbs up or down vote on whether he should stay on as a justice. Critics argued the move was made to make it easier for Edmunds to remain on the bench.
Ultimately a state court ruled the retention-election law unconstitutional, so voters will choose from a field of four candidates.
It's officially non-partisan. But Edmunds is the only registered Republican running. Challengers Mike Morgan and Daniel Robertson are registered Democrats, while Sabra Faires is unaffiliated.
The top two vote-getters will advance to the November election.
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