How many ballots are left to count in NC, and other reader questions answered
North Carolina’s 15 electoral college votes hung in the balance Thursday, with President Donald Trump leading by nearly 77,000 votes, but with 116,200 mail-in ballots not yet returned.
Those absentee ballots could ultimately decide not only North Carolina’s presidential vote, but also whether incumbent Democrats hold onto the state Attorney General’s Office or the chief justice seat on the N.C. Supreme Court.
Here are answers to some of the questions readers have been asking The News & Observer about those mail-in ballots and what comes next.
Q: How many mail-in ballots are outstanding?
A: There are 116,200 absentee ballots that people requested that have not yet been returned. Some of these people may have simply not voted, while some of the people who requested ballots may have ended up voting in person, either Tuesday or during early voting. Others could be in the mail.
Q: When will we know the results of Tuesday’s elections?
A: Not until next Thursday, Nov. 12, or Friday, Nov. 13. County boards of election will hold meetings those days to review provisional ballots, mail-in ballots received after Election Day and to canvass their votes.
N.C. State Board of Elections officials cited N.C. General Statute 163-234, which includes a provision requiring county officials to give public notice at least one time in each of the two weeks before the election about when absentee ballots will be tallied.
Many of the state’s counties are holding their final absentee ballot meeting on Nov. 12, said Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the State Board of Elections. Some counties will hold their absentee ballot meetings on Nov. 13, the same day as their final canvass.
The statute means that those meetings are set, Bell said.
“It’s not a situation where we could encourage them to have emergency meetings or special meetings,” Bell said. “If they need to for other purposes, certainly, but we need to adhere to what the law provides us.”
Q: What needs to happen for these ballots to count?
A: For a mail-in ballot to still count, it must have been postmarked on or before Election Day and arrive at the appropriate county Board of Elections before 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections.
Q: Where are these ballots from?
A: The largest number of outstanding mail-in ballots are in Wake and Mecklenburg counties, the state’s two largest. There are 15,000 in Wake and 14,900 in Mecklenburg, according to the State Board of Elections. In the Triad, Guilford has 6,700 and Forsyth has 5,400 outstanding ballots.
Other places where outstanding ballots could decide races include House District 63, where there are 1,165 outstanding ballots and Democrat Ricky Hurtado holds a 365-vote lead over Republican Stephen Ross.
In New Hanover County, Republican Michael Lee holds a 1,468-vote lead over Sen. Harper Peterson with 3,200 ballots outstanding in a rematch of a race Peterson narrowly won in 2018.
Q: Does that 116,200 include people who requested a mail-in ballot but ended up voting on Election Day?
A: It could, Bell said Wednesday. County elections officials will not know for sure until they update records of who voted in the 2020 General Election and compare it against lists of outstanding mail-in ballots.
Bell said the 116,200 does not include people who voted in person during early voting.
Q: Is it possible for the state to update the number of outstanding ballots as elections officials do their post-voting work?
A: Bell said Wednesday that it’s possible. County elections officials who are updating their poll books will be able to lower the number of outstanding mail-in ballots if voters ended up casting ballots on Election Day.
“We actually can continue to update that number, just recognize that you’ll need to be patient,” Bell said.
Elections officials will also be able to say how many ballots they received in the mail, but will not be able to count them until the absentee ballot meetings.
Q: What about provisional ballots?
A: There were 40,766 provisional ballots cast on Election Day, according to a release Thursday from the Board of Elections. Election officials still need to research those ballots to determine if they should stand.
As Bell predicted during a Wednesday briefing, that is less than the 61,000 provisional ballots that were cast on Election Day in 2016. That year, 27,000 of the ballots ended up counting. There was lower turnout on Election Day this year because of high mail-in and early voting numbers.
The largest numbers of provisional ballots in the 2020 election came from Wake with 3,437 and Mecklenburg with 2,483.
Smaller counties with a high number of provisional ballots included Onslow’s 1,074 and Pitt’s 1,091. Onslow is the home to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, while Pitt includes East Carolina University.
Q: How do I know that my vote counted?
A: North Carolina offers a public voter history tool where anyone can look up the elections in which other voters cast ballots, as well as the methods they used.
As local election officials finish tallying votes, these databases will be updated to reflect individual voter histories.
In a Thursday release, the State Board said it is being “inundated” with questions from voters wondering if their ballots counted.
Voters who cast ballots on Tuesday will likely have to wait a couple of weeks for their records to update, according to the State Board. But the Board also offered assurances that those votes were recorded on media cards in the tabulator and reported as part of Tuesday night’s totals.
Those who voted during in-person early voting can visit their voter history and scroll down to the “Your Absentee Ballot” section. There, the records should say “valid return” under absentee status, “in person” under return method and “accepted” under return status. Once the local board of elections finishes its post-election processing, the individual voter histories will also update.
People who voted by mail will check the same “Your Absentee Ballot” section, but their records will show “mail” under return method. Their return status will show either “accepted” or “accepted - cured.” Those who returned their ballots on or shortly before Election day can use BallotTrax to track their ballot and see if there are any issues.
Q: What prevents someone from casting one ballot in person and another in the mail?
A: North Carolina has several systems in place to prevent double voting, which is a Class I felony.
According to a September letter from Bell, there are electronic records of who has already cast a ballot at every early voting site statewide. If someone had tried to vote for a second time, the records would indicate that. If they insisted on casting another ballot, it would be provisional, and election officials would research its validity in the post-election period.
Election officials also updated the records after early voting, removing people who have already voted from poll books before Tuesday’s Election Day.
Furthermore, mail-in ballots that arrive on Election Day are not tallied until after voting closes, in order to allow records to reflect the ballots cast on what is typically the busiest day of in-person voting.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 4:36 PM with the headline "How many ballots are left to count in NC, and other reader questions answered."