CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The midterm election was three weeks ago, yet we still don’t know who officially won North Carolina's 9th district: Republican Mark Harris or Democrat Dan McCready.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has refused to certify the results because of questions raised about the voting.
Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County is about to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to replace hi-tech electronic voting machines with paper ballots.
“The General Assembly passed legislation that said, we want more than a paper receipt," Elections Director Michael Dickerson explained.
Dickerson said the county’s voting machines will be used one last time for municipal election in 2019. After that, the machines will be replaced with paper ballots.
“We will have a marking device that will mark a ballot for you, spit it out and then you review it and walk it to a tabulator,” said Dickerson.
The state will decide what kind of paper ballot equipment will be used, but Dickerson said whatever they decide it's going to cost counties a lot of money.
“In a county like Mecklenburg, that could be $10 million to $15 million,” Dickerson said.
The move to paper ballots is supposed to reduce the chance of hacking and to alleviate questions like those raised in the 9th District race.
The Board of Elections met behind closed doors to discuss questions raised about voting in the far eastern part of the sprawling district, so it's not known what the issue is or if there is a chance it will change the outcome.
“That’s the state doing due diligence to make sure they have everything correct before they sign off," said Dickerson.
The Elections Board was expected to meet again Friday, but there were some observers who believe that will only be a prelude to a long court fight.
Neither Harris nor McCready has spoken publicly about the decision not to certify the results.
