What to know before Election Day

I'm here with Paul Cox State Board General Counsel who

2024-11-04

will help to answer your questions in a few moments

As you know tomorrow is the big day election day

2024

It's the last chance for eligible registered voters to exercise

their right to vote do their civic duty and make

their voice heard

We just completed 17 days of in person early voting

with record turnout already nearly 4.5 million voters have successfully

cast ballots in this election or 57% of the registered

voters

And as we've said voter turnout in the 25 western

North Carolina counties affected by hurricane Helene continues to outpace

turnout statewide in those 25 counties

Voter turnout is at 59% 2% points higher than turnout

statewide

And even with the tremendous turnout aside from some long

lines in some location few very few voters had any

issue casting their ballot

So despite all of the naysayers despite all false information

and sensationalistic rhetoric out there about elections and despite a

devastating hurricane we are making this happen in North Carolina

that brings us to election day we expect more than

a million voters will cast their ballots in North Carolina

on Tuesday more than 2650 polling places will be open

across the state from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters

in line at 7:30 p.m. will be able to cast

their ballot

Voters should go to their assigned polling place to find

your polling place

Use the voter search tool on the state board website

N CS be.gov and don't forget to bring your photo

ID

This morning we sent out a press release titled 10

Tips for Election Day

Voters in North Carolina

Please share these tips with your audiences so we can

have a smooth election day as well

Also as a reminder all voters can watch results come

in on election night at the State Board's election results

Dashboard

I want to switch gears for a moment and talk

about those voters who have received an absentee ballot but

have not yet returned it absolutely positively do not mail

your ballot at this point

It will not make it in time to be counted

You have two options

You can deliver it by hand to your county board

of elections through 5 p.m. today or by 7:30 p.m.

tomorrow

Election day

Absentee ballots cannot be dropped off at election day voting

sites or you can discard your absentee ballot and vote

in person at your election day polling place

Finally this morning I want to appeal to all North

Carolinians if you're participating in this election as a voter

as a poll worker observer or campaigner

Please treat others with dignity and respect

We want to remind all North Carolinians that state and

federal laws forbid intimidation or interference with voters

It is also a crime to interfere with election officials

carrying out their duties

Penalties for violations include prison time a fine or both

The state board takes these incidents very seriously when they

occur

We will work with our law enforcement partners to respond

Voters who are harassed or intimidated should notify an election

official immediately

We know the political climate in our country is tense

but North Carolinians proved throughout the early voting period that

they can put that aside and participate peacefully in this

election process

Let's continue that momentum on election day

Let's make North Carolina a model for accessible safe secure

and accurate elections

And with that we will take your questions

We'll start with questions in the room

Make sure to go to the mics

If you're gonna ask a question from the room and

then we'll go to those um online or by phone

And if you're online or by phone you'll need to

press one in order to ask your question Laura Leslie

with W or L news

Um couple questions real quick

Number one Western North Carolina

Um You mentioned the turnout's been high

How many sites do they have in tents either early

voting or precinct sites for election day Uh we had

no early voting sites set up in tents but we

do have seven tents uh across uh four in Yancey

County and then one each in Bunkum Burke and Haywood

County

Um I think the best news is that there is

some sort of roadway now even if it's a temporary

roadway in place to even those tent structures

And then um security you mentioned you know a tense

atmosphere

Have you had specific security threats throughout this process or

over this weekend Or also I guess part two is

have you heard of an increased um number of interactions

over the weekend or have you heard threats about what

might happen on election day Really The the hostility and

so forth has been at a very minimum um in

in keeping with elections uh especially presidential elections there's been

a few um verbal more than anything altercations between uh

campaigners or uh individuals who have um inappropriately approached voters

uh in the buffer zone or or as they approach

to vote

Um But all in all it's been very calm

Um We do we are monitoring um because we know

from our counterparts in other states that there have been

um some uh artificial intelligence videos that have been put

out there's been some attempts for denial of service attacks

on uh other state websites

And so not only are we monitoring for physical security

but we're also monitoring for cybersecurity as well

Has the state board or county boards taken any extra

measures for security uh for this election

Uh since the last presidential election we have worked with

our federal partners to conduct what we call safe assessments

Those are physical security assessments at all the county offices

Um These then have a tailored approach to what works

for their setup

So there are some offices that have installed panic buttons

others needed to reconfigure their entry space to uh create

a protective uh you know uh barrier between the workers

and uh the public area

So it just depends but yes we have taken protective

measures

Um We've also been working closely with law enforcement

Law enforcement cannot be stationed at polling places in North

Carolina but they can be on hand

Uh We've done training with them they've done training for

us to make sure that we know um you know

when they're called in what are election laws What are

you know other laws that they have to consider when

they're helping to keep the peace or um deal with

the disruption Yes good morning Michael Peri ABC 11 a

couple of questions with the timing of the votes being

counted

Can you walk us through what that process looks like

when the votes can start being counted when you anticipate

those first votes to be uploaded to the uh board

of elections website with those unofficial results Certainly

Um So when the polls close at 7:30 p.m. we

will be able to release absentee by mail ballot returns

Uh Those will have been tabulated by the county board

of elections um on election day and then ready for

upload when the polls close after that

Uh There's been a change in state law to where

we cannot release early voting results at that time uh

from the in-person early voting period

So those will be closed

Those those will be tabulated at the time that polls

close

And so we'll begin uploading those as we're uploading election

day results

Uh I think you know everyone needs to be mindful

that uh election no no election results are modem in

So in those election day you know over 2600 polling

places they have to be driven in those results and

those ballots to the county boards of elections

And so uh if you think about if there's anyone

in line at 7:30 p.m. until those those last voters

have voted those workers will not be able to bring

in results or close down their polling places

So the bulk of results are gonna be uploaded between

nine 30 PM and 11 p.m. most likely given the

drive time that it takes in many of our counties

Um And and we'll just push them out as quickly

as we can

Um It's gonna feel a lot like uh the state

fair traffic when we had a concert going on at

the same time

Um There's gonna be some bottlenecks and everybody just needs

to have patience

But um know that our objective is we will be

you know provide them as quickly as we can

But the real objective for us to be as accurate

as we can

Uh most likely if all goes as planned we will

have um the last of the results up sometime in

the midnight hour tomorrow night to Wednesday morning

Um You just took my next question

There you go

And I just wanted to add that the election results

that come in on election night they cover we're estimating

about 98% of the votes in the election

There are ballots that our law requires that be counted

during the canvass period

So after election day any absentee ballots that come in

on election day

So Karen was mentioning before about voters who have not

yet put it in the mail they need to bring

it into the county board of elections office

So if those ballots come in on the uh election

day in the office they can't be counted that day

They have to be counted at a subsequent meeting during

the canvass period

So you're gonna have some absentee ballots that get counted

after election day provisional ballots

We're gonna have you know tens of thousands of provisional

ballots across the state that will need to be reviewed

and researched by the county boards of elections and those

will be counted during the canvas process as well

So you'll have this 10 day period after election day

where a small number relatively uh of ballots still need

to be counted

Uh but as of election night as Karen said when

the last results come in midnight or hopefully soon thereafter

uh it'll be roughly 98% of the votes cast

CNN

Thanks for doing this

So uh I want to ask more about intimidation

And so the first part of that question is can

you speak to whether there have actually been incidents already

of intimidation at at polling places that have crossed the

line to the point that state or local officials are

actually going to take action on on those incidents

Paul do you want to talk to that because some

of that might be investigated um without getting into specific

cases that whenever we do receive a report of potential

harassment intimidation or interference with a voter as the executive

director mentioned we take it very seriously and we take

an incident on that and our investigators look into it

Uh they'll interview uh subjects or witnesses uh and potentially

involve local law enforcement

Um And we we have a number of cases that

we're looking into right now

It's not a it's not widespread

Uh It's sort of on par with what we typically

experience in a uh a large election a general election

So uh that's the process we use

And you know if the evidence is substantiated that there

was a crime committed then we'll refer that to a

prosecutor just to get into the weeds a little bit

for a moment

I'm thinking about tomorrow and and I think on every

election day we end up on social media or or

even in emails to us seeing people uh complain that

that they feel they were intimidated in some way

And so I'm wondering if you can to to the

extent you can in a limited amount of time outline

the sorts of behavior that is allowed at at polling

places

You know I'm thinking of hearing people say things like

you know campaign people associated with the campaign were playing

music or they were this close to the polling place

those sorts of things what is allowed and and what

does cross the line Sure

Yeah that that could go over a lot of different

things but we we have a pretty detailed memo um

and Pat can get that to you uh that we

released in 2022

That uh details what is OK and what is not

ok in terms of conduct at the polls but just

to briefly describe uh voters should be able to enter

the voting place especially once they get to that 50

ft buffer zone free of any interference

So once you get to that buffer zone the no

one should be approaching the voters at all even outside

of that buffer zone though you know when a voter

parks their car in the parking lot and is approaching

the voting site

We wanna make sure that no one is interfering with

their ability to get into the voting site

Uh Now that means that doesn't mean that a campaigner

who wants to advocate for the candidate can approach the

voter and say hey you know will you support my

candidate That's first amendment activity that's expressive activity that's protected

Uh But where it would cross the line is if

someone is instead of just advocating for their candidates if

someone is you know questioning the voter aggressively about are

you qualified to vote and that sort of thing Trying

to trying to assume the mantle of an official that's

questioning uh a voter and whether they can go into

the polls that's the sort of thing that can be

intimidating

Uh Another thing that would be against the law would

be uh someone approaching a voter and saying hey you

can't vote here

Actually they moved the vo vo voting place somewhere else

providing false information about the voting process is a crime

So if anyone does that they would be committing a

crime and if we get that reported we will investigate

it and refer it to prosecutors

uh Maggie Newland with CBS 17 with the voter ID

law in effect are you seeing statewide a larger number

of people needing to cast provisional ballots due to not

having an ID with them And will that affect potential

timing of any results

We do have an uptick in provisional ballots because of

the photo ID law

Um but not anything you know unmanageable

Um And and that is actually how the process works

If someone um presents themselves to vote and they do

not have an acceptable form of ID then they are

offered to the opportunity to bring that acceptable form of

ID back to the county board of elections before uh

the day before canvas

So nine days after election on the 14th or uh

they can uh in complete an exception form and that

exception form can list reasons they were unable to obtain

an ID like lack of transportation work or school conflict

Uh It also can be because of natural disaster

Uh So we've had that used some in Western North

Carolina and then it can be for um uh religious

objection for having your photograph taken

Uh So you know that is the process they complete

that form

Um And and give indication they complete a provisional ballot

and it goes back to the county board of elections

and we will count those during election day

There is a report that comes out the day after

election day indicating the number of provisional ballots

Um So we will have a better idea the day

after um how many need to be considered and they

could still be a provisional ballot because of um non

photo ID reasons

Uh uh Someone appears and they are not on the

poll book

Um We will research why and determine if they're an

eligible eligible voter

And can you talk at all I know we've talked

about record um early voting turnout

Have you noticed any patterns that you can compare to

previous years Especially when it comes to unaffiliated voters and

also young voters Um I don't have the data in

front of me as I recall

Um you know the the Democrat and Republican Party and

unaffiliated were uh very high in their turnout

Um And of course there are more unaffiliated voters in

North Carolina than either of the two political parties

Uh So it's not surprising that they would be um

sort of neck and neck in turn of in terms

of turnout

Uh We did in the latter part see an uptick

in younger voters uh turning out

So uh you know it'll be interesting to see who

turns out to vote tomorrow uh given you know where

we are

But I think you know one of the things I

would stress is that this election's not decided just because

57% of North Carolinians have already participated

We saw 75% turnout in 2020

So there are still a lot of voters who can

come out vote and know that your voice will be

heard and that your vote will be counted

Yes

Hi

Thank you so much for taking our questions

I'm David Lamb with NTD news

So in terms of um poll workers and training and

hiring um what uh how has this year been Um

in terms of improvements over last year uh with with

poll workers we uh in terms of you know our

our we've had no issues recruiting poll workers

Um I it's it's been pretty remarkable

It takes about 25,000 individuals to make voting happen at

these polling places

And uh you know we were even concerned in western

North Carolina that we would see some difficulty

And so part of the the resolution and legislation gave

flexibility to those counties to allow for people outside the

county

And yet they never had to to uh you know

exercise that option

They were able to find workers within their counties

You know I think whether it's because of of Hurricane

Helene or just their commitment to this as their civic

duty um people want to give back and they want

to be involved and even though they know that the

environment has changed and there's more hostility and so forth

I think some people do it in spite of that

that they know that it takes them to make this

happen

They know our processes and how they work

They know that it's a bipartisan effort and they're committed

to that oath that they take

And um so we really we've we've we've done well

Um in North Carolina the political uh the political parties

do have input on those workers

And um and so you know that gives the bipartisan

approach that also gives us a pool of of folks

to recruit from and work with

And so all in all you know you know our

utmost thanks goes out to those people those 25,000 North

Carolinians who are willing to work these really long days

Um It's it's essentially a volunteer job for the pay

that they get but they are exceptional folks for doing

this work and serving their neighbors and communities and and

on election day how frequent would the uh results Dashboard

be updated Um It's an uh the results dashboard's gonna

be updated just ongoing process

Um You know as we with with it being dispersed

across 100 counties we don't uh have set times that

they do their uploads they do those as they come

in and they're able to um you know just do

a verification check against the tapes

Uh So it it will just be ongoing um and

refreshing continuously

Thank you Rusty Jacobs W UN C

So you addressed poll observers voters in the polling sites

and any interactions that have already occurred or could occur

on election day

But what about post election unrest Um You know be

it candidates questioning outcomes be there partisan claims of fraud

How much attention have you given Then how can you

prepare or how have you prepared for that You know

I've worked in elections for nearly 19 years now

And post election uh threats hostility harassment were not something

that we planned for for most of my career but

it certainly has become the case because we've watched our

colleagues in Georgia Michigan Arizona Pennsylvania other parts even within

our own state where we were not considered as much

of a battleground state in 2020 be subjected to death

threats to uh harassment and hostility and protests and questions

of our own personal integrity

And so you know it it stands without reason that

we have tried to learn from them understand the relationships

that we need to have with law enforcement make sure

that law enforcement is aware of the level of threat

that we could face particularly as a battleground state with

so much attention on us

Uh And so I think what we've done is to

prepare as best we can and consider it more of

an insurance policy that we hope we never have to

exercise

But that comes into play the same protections that we've

tried to put in place for you know any incidents

that might happen while voting is taking place will be

the things that will be our safeguards through uh the

canvas period and thereafter and so it is having panic

buttons in a lot of our offices

It's having um you know secure entry into areas

We will maintain our transparency

We encourage people to come watch those sample hand to

eye counts

That we do to verify that the tabulators have tabulated

correctly come to the canvas meeting and learn how we

present the results to the board members and prove that

these elections have been conducted accurately and fairly and um

securely and understand why we are able to certify these

elections

Uh because I have no doubt that that's what's gonna

happen

And then you know I would just um you know

make a plea to the candidates and elected officials have

a peaceful transition of power

Accept the results concede defeat when necessary

And please recognize that it is members of this community

It is election professionals

It is peop these are people who have sworn oaths

and this is a bipartisan effort to ensure that every

eligible voter is able to count cast their ballot and

that these results are tabulated and determined securely accurately and

correctly

Hi I'm Helen Coster from Reuters

Thank you for your time

Um You mentioned that you've seen an uptick in younger

voters

Um Have you seen any patterns with regard to men

women and black voters in early voting so far Uh

as I recall the results we do have all uh

not results

So the data we have this published daily on our

state board website

So uh if you have any issues with that you

can get with our communications director and we can provide

that too

Um But we have seen women outpacing men in terms

of turnout uh we uh saw more uh black voters

uh turning out as we went through the um 17

day period

So uh their percentage of turnout was was ticking up

Um And a lot of this data again is available

on our daily sheets that we've been maintaining through um

the early voting period

A quick follow up

Um You talked about some of your post election planning

Can you talk about any staffing changes that you've implemented

since 2020 in terms of the potential reallocation of resources

to different issues Um Given given these heightened threats this

year actually we do not even have the amount of

personnel that we did in 2020

We did not receive the appropriated positions or the allocation

of some of the federal grant funds to uh have

as many field support specialists as we did in 2020

Um So we have we have stretched and we have

made it work and I think that is just a

testament to the dedication and the passion and commitment that

uh particularly at the State Board of elections that the

staff has to ensure that these elections go as smoothly

as possible

Um We so you know it has been really an

effort to maintain the partnerships that we have in place

uh with cybersecurity experts here in North Carolina through other

agencies through the federal agencies

And um to to you know as we have often

been asked to do do more with less and that

is what we have done

And I think it's exceptional what we've been able to

pull off uh in by the state board of elections

and the counties many of them have faced the same

struggles in not having adequate uh resources and personnel but

they've made it work

Thank you Laura Leslie with one quick follow up to

Rusty's question

Um And this has to do with um legal suits

Um this might be a question for Paul

I don't know how many lawsuits have been filed already

about this current election um against the board of elections

Uh I don't know the I don't know the exact

number but um it's uh about the the conduct of

this current election

It's probably around 10

Um and most of those are in different phases of

litigation

Not nothing

We have one case that has been briefed about um

overseas voters that are us citizens that is being briefed

right now to the State Supreme Court

Um that's the only case that I'm aware of that

you know could conceivably have a decision for or on

election day

All the other cases are sort of in a in

a holding pattern where um you know the rules are

set the rules of the road are set as they

should be uh before election day

Uh and so you know we'll we'll see what the

courts decide uh in the coming weeks but that's sort

of where we are with all the litigation

How does that compare to an average year I would

say that that the volume this year compares maybe not

quite as heavy as 2020 2020

We saw a lot more litigation of our voting rules

just because of the pandemic and a lot of groups

being concerned that uh the regular voting rules were not

going to be adequate to make sure that all voters

would be able to cast their ballots

Um So I don't think it's quite as high as

it was back in 2020

But um as the executive director mentioned we we're a

battleground state so we are experiencing some litigation because of

that

Uh our sister states like Pennsylvania and Georgia have seen

more litigation than we have uh comparatively but but it's

still AAA significant amount

Ok

Looks like we can go to the phones or online

for questions

Remember to press one to have your question

Uh go live

Hi

Uh First question uh online is from Ali Reed the

ACU weather network

Ali please go ahead

Hi there

I hope you guys are doing well

Thanks for doing this press conference

Quick question for you guys in regards to again uh

Hurricane Helene and the impact that that has had on

this election

Can you guys just uh explain further what you guys

had done following the hurricane to make sure and ensure

that everyone that was going to vote in this election

was able to be able to

So we've taken a series of steps since Hurricane Helene

uh did such devastation to Western North Carolina

Uh Initially it was just to make sure that we

could get our offices back up and running and able

to serve the public uh that took about a week

um as we had 14 that were not online that

very first Monday following um the the devastation

Uh And within that shortly thereafter we were working with

the postal service as well to make sure that mail

service was continuing be that for voter registration uh uh

mailings or for um the absentee ballot request uh since

that had already started and we could also receive mail

for those purposes

Uh We worked with North Carolina Emergency Management to begin

identifying what it would take to be open for early

voting on October the 17th

And that included uh you know obtaining uh power to

the sites determining if they would need uh uh portable

restrooms things of that nature

Uh We worked with the counties with other officials and

among the state board staff to help craft a resolution

for the state board to adopt

Uh that gave flexibility to the 13 hardest hit counties

That resolution became the basis for the legislation that was

passed in the Disaster Relief Act uh that expanded it

to 25 disaster area counties and that was signed into

law by the governor

This gave the county flexibility in terms of relocating or

changing the hours necessary for early voting to continue

That also allowed them flexibility with poll workers with polling

places for election day and things of that nature and

also the ability for multi partisan assistance teams to assist

voters um beyond what is designated with care facility

Um So uh that's you know those were the other

key steps and then it just became you know working

the plan uh until we could ensure that we could

have as many sites open as possible

We had all we had early voting sites open in

all 100 counties on the day that early voting started

that included 76 of 80 planned sites in those 25

home affected counties

Uh We had power which is a testament to the

power companies and the linemen for making sure that that

was possible

We then uh you know so we had voting going

on

We turned our attention to election day and as things

have continued to improve we uh have been able to

open up the vast majority of polling places

We have been able to address voters in isolated areas

uh and through the efforts of emergency management and dot

And so many others

Uh there is a way in to those isolated areas

now and we only are using seven temporary uh tents

that um emergency management helped us to source and get

set up uh securely and safely for uh four in

Yancey County and then one each in Buncombe Burke and

Haywood County

Uh So you know and then I think you know

the to know that this has worked well you look

at the turnout and the fact that Western North Carolina

is outpacing the rest of the state thus far um

is just a testament to the dedication and the extraordinary

efforts by the election officials by our partners uh at

the state local and federal levels

Uh to make sure that even when devastation struck that

that did not stop voting

Next question online

Next question goes to Tom Frank with political Tom

Go ahead

Yeah I have a question

Um You mentioned the seven tens how many voting sites

in the western and the 25 affected counties have been

moved from their previous or planned location Um I'll ask

you to let our comms department give you um that

specific data

Uh We've obviously had to make some different kinds of

adjustments

In some cases

It's the the same site is being used but the

tent has been placed there in some situations

It's that we actually did have to relocate but it

may just be um a facility that's across the street

um or just down the road

Uh So you know in in some cases we haven't

necessarily completely shut down the facilities we've just had to

make um adjustments

So uh if you want to know some more specific

data let's let our coms department give you that information

Next question

Next question is from Chris Chrome facing South Chris

Go ahead

Hi

Uh this is Chris Krom

Thank you

A question about mail ballots

Uh The latest data I saw that there were some

200,000 mail in ballots that had been requested that hadn't

been returned yet

So just under half uh that'll obviously change today and

tomorrow as those ballots come in and you gave very

clear instructions that voters shouldn't mail the ballots at this

stage

They need to take them directly to election board offices

Um And there's definitely been some concerns and talk about

mail delays

Uh So just wanted to get your thoughts about that

situation and specifically what advice you would offer to voters

who might be worried about whether their ballot will arrive

in time by 730 tomorrow and anything that media outlets

or others can do to inform voters about their options

Thank you

So we do have a number of uh more requests

that were made than ballots have been returned but that's

not uncommon

There are a lot of folks who will make sure

that they have that ballot in case that's the way

that they would like to vote

Um And they just see how their schedule or the

weather or whatever might be their motivation to determines whether

they go and vote in person either during early voting

or on election day

Uh So we do anticipate it's not going to be

a one for one on request to return uh for

absentee ballots

Uh voters can't if they choose to vote in person

instead of using that absentee by mail ballot that they've

already received

Uh they can discard it and go to their election

day polling place uh if they have not uh mailed

it back in and that's the they do want to

vote absentee by mail

Mail is not gonna get delivered at this point

That's it's too short of a window

Um And and certainly the guidance by the postal service

is to allow for a week and we do not

have a week at this point

Uh So they should deliver that to their county board

of elections office today during business hours or by 7:30

p.m. The law did change in North Carolina and this

is our largest election where it has been in effect

that absentee by mail ballots must be returned to the

county board of elections in their hands by 7:30 p.m.

on election night

Uh So that is 730 pm tomorrow

Uh Tuesday November the fifth

In order for it to be counted there is no

longer a grace period or a postmark uh is you

know circumstance in North Carolina any longer

Now with hurricane Eileen voters who choose to vote by

mail and the are registered in one of those 25

affected counties

There is the option for them to take that to

a county board of elections outside of their home registration

we are logging those time stamping and date stamping those

and they are being securely returned uh to the home

or issuing county board of elections

And so they are the only voters who get that

exception

All other voters who want to return their absentee by

mail ballot uh must do so uh in person to

their county board of elections either today or tomorrow by

7:30 p.m. absentee ballots if the voter is not able

to return it absentee ballots can be returned by a

near relative or legal guardian

And we will log that information when those ballots are

turned in

Next question

looks like my company

What was the last question online No other questions

Great

Thank you all so much for helping us to get

accurate information out to the voters of North Carolina

We look forward to serving folks tomorrow on election day

and remember that polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to

7:30 p.m. And if you need to learn where your

voting site is or to look up your registration information

or see see your sample ballot that is available on

N CS be.gov through the voter search tool

Thank you