It’s endorsement season in NC. Here’s what’s changed - and hasn’t - with ours.

It’s election season in North Carolina, and this one is a bit different. For the first time, North Carolina is joining 13 states holding primaries on March 3, also known as “Super Tuesday.” That gives the Tar Heel state more of a voice in determining presidential primary races, which often were settled in previous years by the time N.C. voters cast their ballots in May.

Early voting for N.C., which includes state and local races, begins Thursday. There are significant races up and down the ballot, from North Carolinians deciding on a Democratic opponent for U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis to Wake and Mecklenburg voters narrowing the field in county commission races.

Things are also a little different this year on the Editorial Board. In 2019, the boards of the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer joined forces to provide fuller and more diverse opinion content to our readers. The combined board is led by N.C. Opinion editor Peter St. Onge, who is joined in Charlotte by Observer publisher Rodney Mahone and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Kevin Siers. In Raleigh, associate editor Ned Barnett is joined by New & Observer president and publisher Sara Glines and Robyn Tomlin, News & Observer executive editor.

The News & Observer, which has not made recommendations in primary races in recent history, will do so this year. Those endorsements will include local U.S. House races, N.C. House and Senate races, and primary races for the Wake County Board of Commissioners. The Charlotte Observer will continue to make primary recommendations, including U.S. House races, N.C. General Assembly races and Mecklenburg County races.

The combined board also will issue recommendations in the U.S. Senate race and several North Carolina Council of State races, and we’re planning to weigh in on the Democratic presidential primary.

We will be selective in our endorsements, which means we will make recommendations in competitive and notable races, but not all races. For example, we don’t believe there is a candidate who can defeat Sen. Tillis in his Republican primary. The board does plan, however, to endorse a fuller slate of races in the November election.

In each race we offer a recommendation, members of the editorial board conduct research and interview candidates, and we talk to others who know and have worked with the candidates. We then discuss what we’ve learned as a board and make recommendations. As with editorials on local issues, members of the board in Charlotte do not participate in endorsements of Triangle-specific races, or vice versa. Also, as always, Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer reporters have no involvement in our endorsements.

Here’s another thing we’re not doing: We’re not telling you how to vote. As with editorials, we consider our board to be one of many voices in the conversations our communities are having. When we make recommendations on races, we’re arming you with more information and perspective, but we hope and expect readers to make their own choices. And if your choice is “whomever the Editorial Board doesn’t endorse” — as we hear each election — that’s OK, too!

Beginning Sunday with the U.S. Senate Democratic primary and throughout February, we’ll share our recommendations with you. Our strongest recommendation: Join us in participating in this consequential election. Please, go vote.

This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM.