Across the state, the counting and certification of results is nearly complete on the county level.
From Election Day until November 12th, county Boards of Election across North Carolina accepted absentee, mail-in ballots postmarked by November 3rd which was okayed by the Supreme Court. They also processed provisional ballots and did a sample audit to ensure results were accurate.
State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell explains what happened, Friday.
"[Friday was] the actual official canvass meeting of the county board of elections. They all met at 11 a.m.," she said, "From there, the counties submit up to the state, they've been uploading the results, the final results of those remaining ballots. The state board is set to meet on November 24 for the official canvass."
Between now, and November 24th, state elections staff will collect the voting data and numbers from all 100 counties. They'll conduct five different audits before that date to ensure accurate results.
During this time, protests can be filed if someone believes an election was not conducted fairly, or correctly, and second place finishers can request recounts - but only in close races.
"If it is a local contest or anything outside of a statewide contest, the second-place finisher has to be within 1% in order to call for a recount in our state," said Brinson Bell, "Because of the large volume of turn out we've had, any recount on a statewide level for a second place finisher would have to be within 10,000 votes of a first place finisher."
Following the State Board meeting on the 24th, the Election process is complete - the results, finalized.
"There's no bells and whistles or fireworks that go off. We kind of go quietly into the sunset and call it an election."
Brinson Bell says a lot of progress has already been made. The vast majority of counties have submitted their results to the state, but five county boards of elections will pick back up on Monday to continue with their counting.
As for allegations of voter fraud, she says there's no evidence of a credible threat or hack to North Carolina elections.
