By Liz Moomey
liz.moomey@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Rowan County just wrapped up one election, but another will start Monday.

Filing for multiple races — including two seats on the Rowan County Board of Commissioners, a Kannapolis Board of Education seat representing Area 2 Rowan, a state Senate seat and three state House seats — begins at noon Monday and ends at noon Dec. 20 at the Rowan County Board of Elections Office.

Once a candidate has filed, the deadline to withdraw from the election is Dec. 17.

There’s a change this year for seats in the state legislature. With a new legislative election map, parts of Rowan County will be in Districts 67, 76 and 77.

N.C. Sen. Carl Ford, R-33, is up for re-election, as are N.C. Reps. Harry Warren, R-76, and Julia Howard, R-77.

Rep. Wayne Sasser, R-67, will represent parts of the county because of the new legislative maps. He currently represents most of Stanly County and a handful of Cabarrus County precincts.

All four incumbents have announced plans to run again for their seats.

Rep. Larry Pittman, R-83, has also said he will run once more, but redrawn district moves him completely into Cabarrus County. District 83 will no longer take in Landis and China Grove in Rowan County.

Two Rowan County commissioners, Mike Caskey and Craig Pierce, are also up for re-election. Pierce on Sept. 3 filed a statement of organization for a 2020 county commissioner campaign with the Rowan County Board of Elections.

Todd Adams, who is the current chairman of the Kannapolis Board of Education, is up for re-election.

The filing fee for county commissioner is $138.50. For state legislature, it is $140. For the Kannapolis school board, the fee is $5.

Candidates for the U.S. House District 8 and 13 seats must file at the North Carolina Board of Elections Office in Raleigh. Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican, currently holds the District 8 seat, and Rep. Ted Budd, also a Republican, represents District 13.

According to the N.C. Board of Elections, because of ongoing litigation over the drawing of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts, filing has been postponed for candidates for U.S. House.

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is also running for re-election and will face Raleigh businessman Garland Tucker III and Sandy Smith in the GOP primary. There are four candidates who have announced their intentions to run in the Democratic primary: former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, state Sen. Erica Smith of Northampton County, Trevor Fuller of Mecklenburg County, and Atul Goel of Raleigh.

The filing fee for U.S. Congress seats is $1,740.

Candidates for U.S. Senate; statewide offices including governor, lieutenant governor and Council of State seats; state Supreme Court justice and Court of Appeals judge; district and superior court judge; and district attorney will file at the State Board of Elections in Raleigh.

Candidates must be affiliated with a party for at least 90 days to run in that party’s primary.

The primary for president, congressional and legislative seats, and local races is scheduled March 3, with one-stop early voting set Feb. 13-29. The general election is scheduled Nov. 3, and one-stop voting will be Oct. 14-31. The dates and times are tentative.

Rowan County will have three early voting sites for the primary at the Rowan County Board of Elections, Rockwell American Legion Building and South Rowan Public Library in China Grove.

To cast a ballot in the March primary, voters must present an ID.