Abstract. Let A = F q [T ] be the ring of polynomials over the finite field F q and 0 = a ∈ A. Let C be the A-Carlitz module. For a monic polynomial m ∈ A, let C(A/mA) andā be the reductions of C and a modulo mA respectively. Let f a (m) be the monic generator of the ideal {f ∈ A, C f (ā) =0} on C(A/mA). We denote by ω(f a (m)) the number of distinct monic irreducible factors of f a (m). If q = 2 or q = 2 and a = 1, T , or (1 + T ), we prove that there exists a normal distribution for the quantityThis result is analogous to an open conjecture of Erdős and Pomerance concerning the distribution of the number of distinct prime divisors of the multiplicative order of b modulo n, where b is an integer with |b| > 1, and n a positive integer.