The public is invited to a dry run in instant-runoff voting, 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Durham Public Library. It's sort of an experiment, and sort of a familiarization exercise before the real thing starts two days later.

"It's new, it's a change, there's going to be some confusion," said Elections Director Mike Ashe.

Early voting in this fall's elections opens Oct. 14. Voting in most of the contests is going the conventional way, but in the race for one seat on the state Court of Appeals voters mark three names -- first, second and third choice.

Then election authorities have to figure out who won.