Multiple NC counties to continue counting votes next week

North Carolina’s county election boards will not finish counting 2024 election votes this week. The State Board of Elections announced Friday that “several” counties would resume counting votes on Monday.

Meanwhile, Wake County’s completion of its canvass meeting resulted in flips of two closely contested elections from Republicans to Democrats. Appointed incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs now leads Republican Jefferson Griffin in the race for state Supreme Court. Democrat Terence Everitt overtook Republican Ashlee Adams in state Senate District 18.

A state news release listed Chatham, Craven, Cumberland, Forsyth, Randolph, and Yancey counties among those planning to resume vote counts next week. Other county elections boards continued canvass meetings Friday evening, “so it was unclear if they would finalize their elections or have to resume early next week,” according to the release.

As of 9:20 p.m., the state’s election website listed Brunswick, Durham, Halifax, Sampson, and Watauga counties as the other counties that had not yet finalized election results.

The only statewide election with the potential to be affected by uncounted votes is the race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. As of 9:20 p.m., Riggs leads Griffin by 106 votes out of more than 5.5 million ballots cast in the contest. The race could head to a statewide recount.

In Senate District 18, Everitt overtook Adams and finished with a winning margin of 134 votes out of more than 122,000 votes cast districtwide. Barring a change from a possible recount, Republicans’ new Senate majority will stand at 30-20, matching the current Republican advantage in the legislative session that ends next month.

“The primary purpose of canvass is to ensure that the ballots of eligible voters are counted and those of ineligible individuals are not, that the county board followed all laws in the election and post-election processes, and that the certified results are accurate, no matter how long the process takes,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, in the Friday news release. “The State Board will continue to support these county boards as they work through the process.”

Reasons why vote counts could not be completed Friday “varied by county,” according to the state elections board. Among the reasons listed in the news release: local elections staff needed more time to determine the eligibility of provisional voters, local boards needed to locate and remove ballots of voters who cast early ballots but died before Election Day, and local boards needed to locate and remove ballots of voters whose address verification forms returned to the county boards as undeliverable mail.

Canvass delays do not change deadlines for candidates seeking recounts, the elections board warned. In elections under county jurisdiction, recount requests must be made in writing by 5 p.m. Monday. In statewide elections and other multicounty elections under the state board’s jurisdiction, recount requests are due by noon Tuesday.

More than 5.7 million votes have been counted. Turnout for the 2024 general election stands at 73.6%.

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