CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections is counting over a thousand mail-in, absentee ballots received on or after Election Day.
In Charlotte, 27 people are the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections office are counting the estimated 1,623 ballots in this batch. As of Monday morning, the North Carolina State Board of Elections reports 99,400 outstanding absentee ballots to be process. It's still unclear how many of those will be counted, as some people may have voted in person, canceling their absentee ballot.
This is a normal and standard part of our elections process.
Absentee ballots successfully postmarked by the Nov. 3 deadline on Election Day have until Nov. 12 to arrive and be legally counted. County Board of Elections members are looking at the absentee ballots that have been received since the election.
The presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, along with the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Thom Tillis and Cal Cunningham, both remain "too close to call" in North Carolina. Results from those races could help determine who is elected to the White House, and which party - democrats or republicans - control the United States Senate.
In addition to Mecklenburg County, other North Carolina are counting ballots Friday evening, including:
- Anson: 11 ballots
- Cabarrus: 400 ballots
- Edgecombe: 88 ballots
- Graham: 11 ballots
- Hoke: 192 ballots
- Periquimans: 5 ballots
- Robeson: 175 ballots
- Sampson: 500 ballots
Election officials are making sure they are postmarked by Election Day and that they are signed by the voter and a witness.
If they pass those requirements, they'll be taken out of the envelope, flattened, and then brought into the back to be put in the tabulator.
This is legally required to be a public meeting, and that's why WCNC Charlotte is in the room along with people from each party and the general public can watch as well.
The Director of Elections expects this process to take several hours but plan to get through every ballot they have Friday night.
"Our job is to count those votes that are properly executed ballots," said Michael Dickerson, Meck Co. Director of Elections. "Our goal is to get those results out to the public so that they know what we're doing."
Results will not become official until the canvass next Friday.
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