Under the Dome has a new feature that's not so new.

Since we started the blog, we've had a feature called Frequently Asked Questions in which we provide concise, encylopedic answers to topical questions.

Some examples: What does the state labor commissioner do? How does a primary runoff work? What is the Queen City Curse? Who is on the Council of State? What is a catfish amendment? Who has been expelled from the legislature?

Though we now have answers to more than 40 questions, we haven't promoted this feature much.

That changed today, when we added a new widget to the right-hand column. It will list the most recently modified FAQ and give a brief description of the answer.

To read the fuller answer, click "Read more," or click "View all FAQs" to browse a complete list.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this new/old feature or any suggestions for other improvements to Under the Dome. 

Both candidates for state labor commissioner have faced primary runoffs with extremely low turnout.

Democrat Mary Fant Donnan, a first-time candidate, won her party's nomination in a race Tuesday with less than 2 percent turnout. Incumbent Republican Cherie Berry also won a primary runoff in her first campaign in 2000, which also saw a record-low 2.5 percent turnout.

Donnan said she would be open to discussion about ways to avoid primary runoffs, such as instant-runoff voting, in which voters mark their second choice on the ballot.

Berry said she favors lowering the 40 percent threshold required to secure the nomination in a race with more than two candidates.

"I've always thought that the person that gets the most votes ought to win," she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the threshold.

Bob Hall says instant-runoff voting could have saved the state millions.

The executive director of Democracy North Carolina says that North Carolina could have avoided today's primary runoff, which will cost from $3.5 to $5 million, by asking voters their second choice in the initial ballot.

"Today is really a case where we have this miserably low turnout, and it really is not democratic," he said.

Under instant-runoff voting, voters mark their first, second and third choices in a given race. If no candidate gets a majority in the initial round of voting, the second-choice votes of people who voted for the losing candidate are counted.

State Rep. Paul Luebke proposed a bill to allow the method in statewide party primaries and judicial races in the 2005 session, but it was scaled back to a pilot program for municipal elections. The towns of Cary and Hendersonville successfully used instant runoffs in the 2007 races.

Hall, a campaign finance reformer, said that instant runoffs also help candidates budget wisely.

"You don't have to worry about squirrelling away money for a possible runoff," he said. "And you don't have a situation where the candidate who can raise a lot of money real quick has an advantage."

The labor commissioner runoff will cost between $3.5 and $5 million.

The cost will be shared by each of the 100 counties participating in the runoff between John C. Brooks and Mary Fant Donnan, though some may pay more if other local races drive turnout, said State Board of Elections deputy director Johnnie Mclean.

In previous primary runoffs, turnout has been as low as 3 percent and as high as 16 percent, though Mclean estimates it will be at the lower end.

Under state law, the runner-up may request a runoff if no candidate receives more than 40 percent of the vote. Brooks, who received 24.4 percent of the vote in a four-way race, came in second to Donnan, who received 27.5 percent.

He said he requested a runoff because it is an "educational opportunity."

"The people of North Carolina would have known nothing more about the issues in the Department of Labor than the man in the moon," he said. "The opportunity to save billions of dollars for the people of North Carolina could have gone by, just like it did four years ago."

Brooks also dismissed the idea of instant-runoff voting, in which voters' second-choice picks are counted if no candidate gets a majority. The towns of Cary and Hendersonville held instant-runoff elections last fall under a pilot program.