The North Carolina Libertarian Party will ask the State Board of Elections to conduct a Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary which may be the first in the state’s history.

The party’s executive committee directed Acting Chair J.J. Summerell to make the request which must be sent to the SBOE by February 7. The candidates listed will be R. Lee Wrights, who was born in Winston-Salem but now lives in Texas, Roger Gary of Texas, R. J. Harris of Oklahoma, Gary Johnson or New Mexico, Carl Person of New York, and Bill Still of Virginia.

However, the N.C. primary will be held three days after the Libertarian Party nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates at a national convention in Las Vegas May 2 to 6. The North Carolina primary is May 8.

California will also hold a Libertarian primary after the party’s national convention, but the state party has no say in that decision under California law. That ballot will include nine names, according to Ballot Access News.

It is unclear what action the SBOE will take. The election law statute requires the chairs of political parties recognized by the state to submit a list of names for the primary ballot of those candidates “generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina.” It also says the SBOE “shall” nominate as primary candidates all those names submitted.