North Carolina Republicans pressed state election officials on Friday to make public more information about the number of outstanding ballots from this week’s election that could be counted.
Nearly a dozen Election Day races in North Carolina, including those for president and U.S. Senate, remain too early to call because as many as 172,000 ballots have either yet to be counted or rejected, or could trickle in before next week’s deadline to receive mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day.
The actual number of ballots that will arrive is likely to be less, however, because many people who requested absentee ballots ended up voting on Election Day or perhaps didn’t vote at all. And past elections show a significant portion of the 41,000 provisional ballots cast on Tuesday will be rejected.
There are also nearly 32,000 absentee ballots that have been accepted by counties, but not yet tallied since a cutoff for inclusion in the Election Night results.
Election boards in nine counties had scheduled meetings Friday to decide whether to accept 4,300 absentee ballots received by mail and add them to their election night tabulations. Other county boards will meet in the coming days.
State GOP Chairman Michael Whatley told reporters on Friday that Republicans recognize the formal counting process that state law requires takes time. But he said the release of more data on absentee ballots could bring finality to top races sooner, or allow trailing candidates in extremely close races to prepare to ask for recounts.
“We do not see anything in the provisional counts or in the absentee counts that gives us any heartburn,” Whatley said. “Our message is that Donald Trump has won North Carolina and that Thom Tillis has won North Carolina.”
The five-member state board is appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Three board members are Democrats.
Photo via AP Photo/Gerry Broome.
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