Should all N.C. elections be partisan?

As more municipal races change status, it's worth a serious discussion

North Carolina’s standard political conversations are all about the power struggles between Republicans and Democrats. But the majority of our state’s elections aren’t partisan at all. Municipal races — those bottom-of-the-ballot contests that elect your town council, mayor and school board — are largely nonpartisan across the state.

This is slowly changing, and it’s worth a closer look. Over time, more and more municipal races are adding party labels. Again this year, legislators have filed a slate of local bills to change another handful of school board and town council races into partisan ones.

Typically, these decisions are viewed through a partisan lens: How will these changes affect who's more likely to win? While this concern is valid, there’s also a strong argument to be made that partisan elections benefit voters.

The arguments typically come down like this. Defenders of nonpartisan elections typically say that they help take political squabbling out of civic positions. People …