County boards of elections across North Carolina met Friday for canvassing, during which they tally official election results. Not everyone completed the job, but the process has already flipped the apparent outcome of multiple contests.
First, election officials heard any election challenges over vote counting and results tabulation. Then, they verified that all votes were counted and tabulated correctly. Finally, they added approved provisional ballots and final day absentee ballots, which were researched during the past ten days, to the official vote tallies.
As of 7 p.m. Friday night, 87 of the state’s 100 counties had completed the job. Chatham, Craven, Cumberland, Forsyth, Randolph and Yancey counties plan to continue their canvassing on Monday.
Meanwhile, Brunswick, Durham, Halifax, Pasquotank, Sampson, Wake and Watauga counties continued working Friday evening. New numbers from those counties shifted the total in some close contests overnight including a state Supreme Court race and a state Senate race.
Brunswick, Wake, Durham and Pasquotank were able to finish their counts overnight. But Halifax, Sampson and Watauga will join the other counties that are finishing up on Monday.
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Some county boards of election needed more time to determine the eligibility of provisional voters, some needed to remove voters who died between casting their ballot early and Election Day and others needed to remove ballots from voters whose address verification notice was returned as undeliverable.
Several races remained within very tight margins, which could be grounds for a recount.
What’s at stake in canvassing
Throughout the day Friday, the vote margin between two candidates for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat — incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin — narrowed from about 7,000 votes to 2,753. Griffin was still leading Friday evening, 50.02% to 49.98%, well within the recount margin.
But by Saturday morning the situation had reversed. As of noon on Saturday, Riggs had moved into a narrow lead of just 24 votes. With provisional ballots still being evaluated and counted in some large population areas, including Fayetteville and Winston-Salem, those totals are likely to change further.
If Griffin wins, the Republican majority on the state Supreme Court would grow to 6-1. If Riggs holds on, she would retain one of two seats for Democrats on a court where the part held a majority until recently.
Since canvassing is not done, Griffin cannot yet call for a recount and still could finish on top. Neither candidate has conceded the race.
The North Carolina House’s Republican veto-proof supermajority also remained in flux. According to unofficial results, Republicans won 71 seats and Democrats won 49. Canvassing could change that.
Republicans needed to win 72 seats to maintain their supermajority, but were one seat shy. However, two races were close enough for the second-place candidate to call for a recount.
In District 25, located in Nash County, Republican incumbent Rep. Allen Chesser leads Democratic challenger Lorenza Wilkins by slightly less than 1% of the total vote, or 461 votes. Wilkins told Carolina Public Press he has called for a recount.
In District 32, which covers Granville and Vance counties, Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn leads incumbent Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon by 0.53% of the vote, or 233 votes.
Sossamon is the Republicans’ final hope for a supermajority, but has not indicated whether he would call for a recount. The GOP would need both Chesser and Sossamon to retain their seats to keep the supermajority.
Republicans in the North Carolina Senate met the supermajority threshold, winning at least three-fifths of the chamber’s seats, and potentially one or two extra pending possible recounts.
A Republican supermajority in both chambers would allow the legislature to override any vetoes of incoming Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein.
While the Republicans clinched supermajority control of the state Senate, two races subject to a recount could give them even more of a buffer.
In Senate District 42, which covers part of Mecklenburg, Democrat Mrs. Woodson Bradley leads over Republican Stacie McGinn by 0.16% of the vote, or 204 votes.
McGinn has not called for a recount, but told Queen City News after Election Day that she would look at official results before deciding whether or not to request a recount.
Senate District 18 is perhaps the most uncertain legislative race. The district includes parts of Granville and Wake counties, but only Granville has completed its canvass.
As it stood at 7 p.m. Friday, Republican Ashlee Bryan Adams had edged Democrat Terence Everitt out by just 5 votes. But by noon on Saturday, Everitt had moved into the lead by about 134 votes. Putting Adams in a position to call for a recount.
Adams not indicated whether a recount request is planned.
Local races, with smaller numbers of total votes, may also be eligible for recounts. For example, Caswell, Pitt, Montgomery and Swain counties are a few with board of commissioners races with small enough vote margins to make a recount possible.
How would a recount work?
Runner-up candidates can call for recounts when election results meet certain criteria following canvassing under state law.
For statewide races, including legislative races that include more than one county, candidates may call for a recount if the final vote is separated by fewer than 10,000 votes.
County-level races, including legislative races encompassing only one county, are eligible for a recount if the difference between votes is 1% or less of the total votes cast.
Runner-up candidates may ask for a recount, in writing, by the Monday after the canvassing process is completed at 5 p.m. for county-level races, and by Tuesday at noon for statewide races.
Recounts must be conducted before the statewide canvassing on Nov. 26. If one is demanded, impacted counties will conduct recounts during open meetings.
According to State Board rules, the first recount will be a machine recount. Ballots that the voting machine rejects will be counted by hand by a bipartisan team including two officials from the Democratic Party and two from the Republican Party.
The recount will occur within three days of the request.
If the first recount does not reverse the results, the candidate who originally called for a recount may demand a second recount. Any second recounts consist of a hand-to-eye recount in a sample of precincts. If extrapolating that sample to all precincts would change the result, then a hand to eye recount is conducted in all precincts.
If the first recount does reverse the results, the candidate who drops into second place may also request a second recount.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and may be updated.
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