Raleigh City Council is changing how its members are elected, again

Raleigh voters will elect their city leaders for longer, staggered terms starting in 2026.

On Tuesday, the Raleigh City Council decided to move to four-year staggered terms and move to a nonpartisan primary election. Council members are currently elected all at once for two-year terms.

However, that topic won’t be on the ballot before voters this fall.

The Raleigh City Council decided to make the change during its Tuesday meeting instead of moving forward with a ballot referendum. City leaders also decided against expanding the board by three district members.

Council members Mary Black and Megan Patton voted against the motion, saying they wanted to put the idea before voters. Council member Christina Jones was absent and excused from the meeting.

Patton made the original motion to expand the eight-person board with three district seats, but said since her original pitch, it was clear there wasn’t enough support for the idea. And there were too many unknowns about how much it would cost the city to hire additional staff to support the new city council members.

The board is made up of five district seats and three at-large members, including the mayoral seat.

These changes do not affect the upcoming 2024 election.

If Raleigh residents wanted the issue to be put on the ballot, they could collect 5,000 signatures within 30 days of the change, which should be within the next 10 days.