The Beaufort County Board of Elections — as well as other boards of elections across the state — will begin accepting candidate filings for the 2016 elections cycle a bit earlier than usual.

Because of a change enacted by the N.C. General Assembly earlier this year, the filing period begins at noon Tuesday and ends at noon Dec. 21. Legislators also moved up the state’s 2016 primaries from May to March 15. In the past, the filing period for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, Council of State and General Assembly races (and others) was conducted in the early months of the election year. The filing period applies to the primaries and general election in 2016.

Anita Bullock Branch, deputy director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections, said other than the filing period occurring earlier than usual, the filing process remains the same as in the past. “Once they file their papers, they’ll have a longer campaign season than usual,” she said.

Leaders in the N.C. House and N.C. Senate agreed to move all primaries in the state to March 15 to cut election-related costs and to make North Carolina more relevant in the presidential nominating process. Holding separate primaries — one for presidential nominations and the other for gubernatorial and other contests — would have been too costly, those leaders said. They contend a second primary would cost from $5 million to $10 million.

At least two people have said they plan to run for the District 6 seat in the N.C. House of Representatives being vacated by Rep. Paul Tine, an unaffiliated legislator who is not seeking re-election. Republican Ashley Woolard, a Washington resident, and Democrat Judy Justice, a Dare County resident, announced their intentions earlier this year. District 6 includes part of Beaufort County and all of Dare, Hyde and Washington counties.

In Beaufort County, voters will elect four county commissioners. The seats currently held by Republicans Gary Brinn and Hood Richardson and Democrats Jerry Langley and Robert Belcher are available in 2016. The Beaufort County Board of Education seats held by Eltha Booth, Barbara Boyd-Williams, F. Mac Hodges, Carolyn S. Walker and Mike Isbell are available, too. Tracy Warren’s seat on the Beaufort County Soil and Water Conservation Board is up for election in 2016. The commissioners, school-board members and soil-and-water supervisors serve four-year terms.

The filing period for candidates seeking seats on a county’s soil-and-water conservation board begins at noon June 13, 2016, and ends at noon July 1, 2016.

Filing fees run from $1,740 for someone running for the U.S Senate or U.S. House of Representatives to $1,257 for a gubernatorial candidate to $207 for a candidate for the state Senate or state House to $5 for a candidate for a soil-and-water conservation board. Filing fees are based on 1 percent of the annual salary for that specific office.