North Carolina's dBusiness News reports on one of the candidates for State Auditor, Leslie Merritt of Zebulon, North Carolina who is running for office using the state's Voter-Owned Elections full public financing program. The program was expanded this year to include three Council of State positions, including State Auditor. Previously, it covered elections to the North Carolina Appellate and Supreme Courts.Merrit is seeking his second term as State Auditor, and spoke of his process of collecting the small-dollar qualifying contributions required to receive public funding:“We worked hard to reach out to voters all across North Carolina during the qualifying period,” says Merritt. “The fact that such a high percentage of our qualifying contributions came from registered Democrats demonstrates that our efforts to reform state government resonate across party lines. The people of North Carolina want change, and we have been willing to challenge the status quo in Raleigh.”