Charlotte’s primary elections this week narrowed the field of candidates running for mayor and city council. Voters will make their final choices for city leaders on July 26.

Almost 110,000 people voted in Mecklenburg County’s May 17 primaries. That works out to be turnout of about 14% countywide.

But the off-date municipal elections this year could cause some confusion for voters when it comes time for the General Election.

Who is running for mayor?

Mayor Vi Lyles won the Democratic nomination to keep her seat in City Hall. She will face Republican Stephanie de Sarachaga-Bilbao, who won the GOP primary for Charlotte mayor.

What about the city council?

In the crowded primary field for three at-large seats on the city council, incumbents Braxton Winston and Dimple Ajmera, along with LaWana Slack-Mayfield and James Mitchell, were the top vote-getters on the Democratic side.

The top four Republicans for the at-large council seats were David Merrill, Charlie Mulligan, Carrie Olinski and Kyle Luebke.

Dante Anderson won the Democratic primary for District 1. There are no Republicans running for the seat.

In District 2, incumbent Malcolm Graham won the Democratic primary. He will face Republican Mary Barnett in the General Election.

Incumbent Democrat Victoria Watlington won the primary for District 3. Republican Jeremy Bowers did not have a primary challenger for the district.

District 4 Democrat Renee’ Perkins Johnson, the incumbent, won the Democratic primary and does not have a challenger for the General Election.

For District 5, Marjorie Molina won the Democratic primary and no Republicans are running against her on July 26.

Republican incumbent Tariq Bokhari did not have any competition in the primary for District 6. He will face Democrat Stephanie Hand in the General Election.

In District 7, no one filed to run against Republican Ed Driggs, so he will keep his seat for another term.

Why the weird date?

Charlotte was supposed to hold municipal elections last year. But the elections got delayed until 2022.

Every 10 years, the state and cities have to go through a process of redistricting with new population numbers. But a combination of COVID-19 and politics delayed the work of the U.S. Census Bureau, leading to delays in getting the population data needed for redistricting. 

When state leaders saw the potential for delays with the 2020 census, they passed a state law to put off the municipal elections in Charlotte, Greensboro and a handful of other cities to 2022, opting to lump them in with the statewide midterm primaries. The legislature set the General Election date for these towns and cities as July 26.

Will there be early voting before July 26?

Early voting for the municipal elections will run from July 7 to 23.

When will the winners take office?

The winners of the mayoral and city council races will be sworn in on Sept. 6.