CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joe Biden has been named President-Elect, even though the vote-counting in North Carolina is not completed yet.
According to the AP and NBC News, the Presidential and Senate races in the state are still too close to call. Mail-in ballots can be accepted up until Thursday, Nov. 12.
Monday night, county boards will continue counting. Buncombe, Craven, Cumberland, Johnston, Onslow, Person and Watauga counties are holding public meetings like the one held in Mecklenburg County on Friday. In total, they're getting through about 4,000 mail-in ballots that have arrived since Election Day, votes needed to call the races in North Carolina.
“Election administrators, county Boards of Elections, the state board, we don't call the election. We count the votes. The outcome of that counting allows for the media, the candidates, the campaigns to determine the winner,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the Director of the state Board of Elections.
On Friday, board members in Mecklenburg County closely looked at the envelopes, verified they were postmarked by Election Day and had the necessary signatures before they were counted. They'll do it again Tuesday night at 5.
“In North Carolina and across the country, it is critical that every vote count, every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot and that's what this process is seeing through,” said Brinson Bell.
As of Sunday morning, there are 94,900 outstanding mail-in ballots in the state. They could be in the mail on their way back, spoiled because the person chose to vote in person on election day, or not voted at all.
“It’s a very small number of votes that we're actually considering now. What we saw play out around the country over the last few days is them dealing with the ballots we were able to deal with prior to Election Day. North Carolina is not behind, we're actually ahead, we just have some very close races that are going to be determined when we hold our certification meetings,” said Brinson Bell.
Michael Whatley, the chairman of the NCGOP is calling on the NCSBE to release the number of people who requested an absentee ballot but then voted in person.
“Then we'll know how many absentee ballot requests are still outstanding and you could figure out very quickly, there’s no way statistically for Joe Biden or Cal Cunningham to overtake the margins that we have in the Senate and Presidential race here in North Carolina," said Whatlely.
Austin Cook, a representative for the North Carolina Democratic Party replying:
“Per the NCSBE’s settlement surrounding mail-in absentee votes, all ballots received until November 12 will be counted as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. North Carolina’s election officials are working hard to ensure that every vote is counted and we applaud their efforts to allow every North Carolinian to make their voice heard. We’ll know the final results of this election soon, but until then it’s essential that, no matter the pace, every vote is counted.”
Brinson Bell said they responded to the request within a few hours.
The counting process is following the same timeline as past elections, the checks and balances in place to reinforce certainty in the results.
“What we're doing is a comprehensive and thorough audit so when we do put out those numbers as part of our certification period, folks can be confident,” she said.
Mecklenburg County will hold another public meeting to go through the mail-in and provisional ballots Tuesday at 5 p.m.