In mid-June, the Senate added a provision that eliminated the separate drawing for the 2018 general election. That means a candidate whose name starts with "E" would again be last. In previous elections, candidates listed first were those in the governor's party. Like Gov. Roy Cooper, Earls is a Democrat. "This was an obvious attempt to help the Republican candidate and hurt the Democratic candidate," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "There's no doubt about that."