11 a.m. Election Day update: No issues so far at NC polling sites, state says
Eligible registered North Carolinians to cast their ballot in this
important election
Polls across the state are open until 7:30 p.m. And
if you are in line at 7:30 p.m. you will
be able to vote
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
Yesterday 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
If you haven't voted yet please take time today to
make your voice heard
As a reminder all voters will be asked to show
photo identification when they check in to vote
Most voters will simply show their driver's license but many
types of photo ID will be accepted
Go to bring it nc.gov for more information about the
photo ID requirement and a full list of acceptable I
DS
We also want to remind voters that if you forget
your ID poll workers must offer you a provisional ballot
and the opportunity to either fill out an ID exception
form explaining why you are unable to show photo ID
or return to your County Board of Elections office to
show your photo ID before 5 p.m. On November 14th
no voter should be turned away from the polls for
not having an ID with them
At this time
We are unaware of any disruptions or delays at polling
places that may necessitate extending voting hours beyond 7:30 p.m.
That's simply remarkable considering more than 2600 polling places opened
statewide this morning we will continue to monitor polling places
statewide and if necessary we will call a state board
meeting to consider any voting extensions
At this time we have not heard reports of any
major incidents at any polling places
We also have not heard reports of long lines today
It is a good day to go vote
We have been addressing reports that the State Board's voter
search tool on N CS be.gov has been running a
bit slow today
This is not unusual for election days when tens of
thousands of people are accessing the search tool
At the same time we ask voters to be patient
and wait for your information to load
Finally we want to remind the public that they can
watch results come in tonight after polls close on the
state board's elections result dashboard found at N CS be.gov
We remind members of the media to read the press
release nine facts about the vote counting and reporting process
in North Carolina
There are a few important things to remember about election
night results
They are always unofficial in the days after the election
bipartisan election officials in all 100 counties will ensure every
eligible ballot is counted
They will audit and ultimately certify the results
This is called the canvas process and it occurs after
every election for local contests
The county boards will certify results on November 15th for
all other contests
The state board will certify final results on November 26th
The state board anticipates that the unofficial results reported by
the end of election night will include about 98% of
all ballots cast in the election over the 10 day
canvas period provisional ballots and some absentee ballots will be
counted and uploaded to the results dashboard
These ballots are required to be counted after election day
by law and North Carolina's election officials will follow that
law
Election officials do not call
Elections projections are made by media and or the candidates
using unofficial results typically based on exit polls or the
vote difference and the number of votes yet to be
counted in a contest
Election officials will go through the post election canvas processes
as required by law no matter how close a contest
stay tuned to the state board for additional press releases
and we will send out a notice for any additional
press conferences in the coming days with that we will
take your questions
We'll start in the room first and then we'll go
to the phone or online and remind those folks who
are going uh using the phone or online system to
press one when they do ask their questions
So is there anyone in the room You'll go to
one of the mics if you would please Hi thank
you for doing this and the other press conferences leading
up to today
Uh Britney Gibson from Politico I just wanted to follow
up on something you had mentioned at last week's press
conference about when you expect to uh have your unofficial
tabulations tonight you mentioned I believe in 2020
It was about 12 a little after 12:30 a.m. Where
do you project tonight being And um I you know
with the caveat of of course you know you're not
gonna rush to beat last time
Uh So our official final upload in 2020 was 12:28
a.m. on that Wednesday morning
And so I have challenged everyone to let's meet that
or do better than that
Now we have to be re you know face reality
of it
Um That's our goal
But um you know there are a lot of votes
to deal with once the polls close uh with this
election uh the new to our laws we cannot um
tabulate and upload the early voting results uh at the
close of polls like we've been able to do in
the past
So those will not be released until after the polls
close
The the tabulators will be closed down and the results
will be uploaded with the election night results as they
come in
Uh So at 7:30 p.m. we will release the absentee
by mail results and then uh we will just begin
to gather uh the results from the election day polling
sites and you know be mindful that we do not
modem results in North Carolina
So if you just factor in that if the polls
are able to close at 7:30 p.m. because no one
is in line it's gonna still take a solid hour
or so before the results would be driven to the
county board site
Um And we've got over 2600 pla polling places that
have to do that tonight
So the bulk of our results we anticipate would be
probably between 9930 to 11 p.m. And um you know
we'll address anything that's that's running slower than that
Um We'll also cost and everyone that that's a large
volume of data hitting our results dashboard at the same
time
So just like we're experiencing some lag because of the
interest in our voter search tool we may be experiencing
some lag in the results just because of the sheer
volume of data that's going in and the interest that
we're seeing in our results
Thank you
I'm Dina with CBS 17
Thank you guys
Um I have two questions
One you said that thankfully no major issues reported yet
this morning
If you guys have seen any issues at all whether
it be this morning or over early voting what have
those been And second question being we've been hearing that
the um damage from Helene in Western North Carolina thankfully
isn't impacting the election so much
Is that the same that you are you guys still
seeing that this morning that things are running smoothly there
So again no incidents to speak of
Um there were uh just I think three maybe four
polling places that um had some delay in getting going
but they turned no voter away they went to their
manual process or were able to um move things along
quickly
Uh So you know we feel like knock on wood
that we are in very good shape
Obviously there could be some sort of disruption
Um you know we've had uh accidents to happen near
polling place that's delayed traffic or um you know power
outages or something like that that might create a problem
throughout the day
But um with the the good weather and the good
planning and so forth we're hopeful that we won't see
any further disruptions um that would could cause any delay
Um And then in terms of of the Helene affected
counties uh as we've reported out you know we had
a 57% turnout between absentee and early voting ballots uh
for for North Carolinians and in the western part of
our state those helene affected counties actually outpaced the rest
of North Carolina with about a 59% turnout
So uh as we you know are going into election
day we are finding that um they were able to
get their polling places open on time and uh we
did get those with seven tents up and operational uh
for for places that had no facility to to locate
for poll uh you know locate voting in
Um And and that's all gone smoothly too
So I think it's just a real testament to the
hard work and preparation that these election officials have put
in uh to making this election go smoothly
And also just a testament to our partners with state
emergency management dot The power companies so many North Carolina
National Guard so many people that I could identify who
have helped to make today possible in those Helene affected
counties
Thank you
Hi Karen Sean C ABC 11
I also have a two parter just understanding it's really
early wondering if there's any preliminary info about the number
of ballots that have been cast in person today through
the first few hours at least
And then secondly I know you touched on the process
kind of longer term before the vote is ultimately certified
But what is sort of immediately after the polls closed
today The role that the Boe will play in kind
of gathering the ballots physically counting them up
Sort of can you walk voters through what role you
guys will play and kind of getting the the count
started
I don't have our 10 o'clock count but we can
try to get that
Uh if not we'll we'll try to get that out
before um too long uh where we gather from the
counties the the kind of turnout that they're seeing um
in terms of is your question about the role of
the state board in the counting of ballots or the
county Yeah I guess you know I think I think
just for folks that are curious what will sort of
happen immediately once the once the polls close to kind
of get get this process started
So all ballots are counted at the local level
Uh I do want to emphasize that um those precinct
officials that have been overseeing the voting site they are
going to tabulate and sign off on those results tapes
and then they will be the ones who transport them
securely back to the county boards of elections
That could mean uh they have a series of seals
that are tamper resistant seals uh where they will have
a flash drive and the actual paper ballots because we
are 100% paper state
Uh So the tabulators have been used to be more
efficient in our county but there was always a paper
record and all of that will be transported securely following
chain of custody
These are bipartisan officials who have taken oaths to serve
in those polling places and to carry out this work
they will deliver those to the county boards
The county boards will you know take chain of custody
um of those materials
Uh They will you know verify the everything was there
that was supposed to be transported and then uh as
they input those results into an air gap meaning not
connected to the internet aggregation computer the software is there
to aggregate these results
Um They're going to check against the results tapes to
make sure the right stick uh flash drive came back
to them that the ballots that were cast or or
what's in those uh results files and they will aggregate
that
They will then save those results and do uploads periodically
on new flash drives
They take that over to our um secure state election
information management system which is where they're able to access
the election night results
Um anytime they do uploads they're using a new flash
drive so that we have no uh cross you know
that again they don't take anything from a networked computer
back to an air gapped computer
So uh that's for tonight
And then we'll go through reconciliation processes and sample hand
to eye counts and and um review of eligibility and
so forth
Uh As we go through the certification period
Thanks here David Hodges WB TV in Charlotte
Uh I was wondering if we could get a little
bit more into the process of let's hope there are
no delays at any polling locations and you keep the
track record you have right now
However I think for most elections we have seen an
issue with either some type of delay or a computer
glitch
Can we really get it Would you mind kind of
really describing the process of if there is an issue
at a polling location uh how the complaint would be
formed how the state board of elections gets together and
ends up deciding whether or not to leave a precinct
open later or close it when it's excuse me uh
designed to
Now if you jinxed us I'm calling you at 1
a.m. Um No so the way that our our laws
written if there is a delay that extends more than
fif 15 minutes or more then that is something that
gets reported to us
I mean really the counties are very good about reporting
any delays to us but they help us to understand
you know at the 15 minute mark or greater what
were the circumstances We all you know one key thing
that the state board always wants to know is were
any voters turned away And so the situation that I
mentioned this morning the voters patiently waited in line um
they were able to get processed and checked in and
and and we you know they they were able to
vote without issues
So we did not have a delay or disruption in
voting
And so that's what the state board weighs when they
consider it
So uh the role that I have and and General
Council cox um we will take that information to the
board members determine if a meeting needs to be called
Um And at this time there there's not a situation
So let's just say that there were to be uh
a traffic accident that blocks entry to a voting site
today
Um Then you know we would certainly work with that
county determine if it's such a situation that would require
move moving the polling place or is it such a
situation that there was just a delay in voting And
uh perhaps the board needs to consider whether anyone was
turned away or not
That's the real key is whether anyone was kept from
voting
Good morning Kurt Divine CNN wondering if you can characterize
the amount of miss or disinformation that that you've seen
this election cycle and speak for a moment to whether
the the state board has a strategy for countering those
types of falsehoods
So you know North Carolina elections might you know many
mo most of our colleagues across the country have have
certainly been subjected to some level of myths and and
disinformation
Um But you know what I think is really important
is how we address that
Um And we have worked since 2019 on a campaign
around the hashtag your vote counts NC efforts on social
media efforts on our website efforts uh through press availability
and press releases to inform North Carolinians about our processes
in North Carolina
So that when they're presented with misinformation they question that
and know to go to trusted sources of information like
the state board like our county boards um like vote.gov
uh and and others uh that are trusted sources of
information
We also have very transparent processes in North Carolina where
citizens are our workers
Um you know 25,000 people are making today possible and
our voting sites operate
So um when you when you know that there's so
many people that are involved that they are able to
help you know provide the truth provide the facts
And similarly you know we also um are transparent in
you know our pre election testing is open to the
public
Our post election audits are open to the public the
meetings that these bipartisan boards are having are open to
the public
And so I think that we actually have not seen
the degree of you know what we would say or
misinformation posts um to any great extent larger than what
we've seen in maybe other elections and perhaps to some
degree a little less which I think really speaks to
uh the efforts that we've we've put out there
One specific follow up is is that we've seen federal
authorities in recent days put out some specific statements about
disinformation that they've identified
Has the state board heard from federal Federal authorities on
anything uh specific or that type of disinformation that is
actually touched upon North Carolina in some way we are
in communication with our local state and federal partners that
help us to monitor
We are stationed today with individuals who are ensuring that
we are not subjected to cyber attacks or uh misinformation
that could be of a domestic or foreign Malign influence
Um And in our case uh you know we have
not been the target knock on wood um that some
of our colleagues in Pennsylvania Georgia and Arizona have been
with uh A I faults uh videos
Um But we are certainly monitoring in hopes that we
would not be
And our federal authorities have kept a surprise of any
efforts um that directly target us um as a swing
state we are sometimes meshed into some of the mis
and disinformation that um many of us are subject to
But uh we are not at this point
Um directly targeted keep going
Uh I have I just waited until election day to
vote
Uh this morning I have never received so many text
messages and voicemails in my entire life
So to your to your point on transparency would you
mind kind of uh detailing for viewers you know what
is transparent and what is secret in the voting process
Uh so that people understand that
So our voter rolls are public record
Um so that you know I mean certainly I think
you know campaigners like that but it is also um
it's a it's a way that we're transparent
Um we you it is not known how you voted
It is simply known that you participated in the election
And so uh this is you know there there's a
transparency in that
Uh so that you know if you were not an
eligible voter you're you could be challenged
Um That is part of our processes in North Carolina
though we haven't seen anything of of any significance there
Um But you know we uh there there are ways
that people in this day and age are able to
access you know they can access our voter record in
terms of who's a registered voter you know and obviously
there are other lists where they can try to get
as close a match to phone numbers and emails and
things like that
And so yes um my mailbox my inbox my text
messages have been pretty rampant
Um even though I voted early on in the early
voting period
Um And so you know it it's not necessarily generated
from the state board
Uh we did uh send out two text messages um
directly from the state board to voters who had signed
up for the ballot track service to make sure that
they knew the change in absentee law that requires absentee
ballots to be delivered by 7:30 p.m. today election day
and that there's no longer a grace period
And so that is the only text messaging that went
out from the state board
Good morning
Uh Rusty Jacobs W UN C I think Paul mentioned
this yesterday
The photo ID requirement is getting perhaps its biggest test
uh general presidential election just wondering if you have any
indication so far during election day and from the early
voting period that it is a if not an impediment
a higher hurdle to ne and a tougher hurdle to
navigate for for voters if Paul's heard otherwise he's welcome
to speak to it
But really and truly um the photo ID implementation has
gone very smoothly
Um I think being able to uh communicate through our
our Bring It NC campaign um that we were able
to help inform voters
Uh the fact that there is the exception form in
North Carolina um that if someone's unable to obtain ID
and they can indicate why or if they have a
religious objection or if they um have experienced a natural
disaster then that a and for those absentee voters that
they ain't able to make a copy of their photo
ID those are all exceptions permitted by law in North
Carolina
And while we've seen some use of that it's gone
smoothly
Um and we don't we're not finding at this point
we may learn differently as the day goes on
Um that there's not been a tremendous use um of
the exception form uh because we do have a number
of acceptable forms of ID
And so uh my will present their driver's license
There's many options
Uh military veteran I DS passport
Many university college community college I DS are acceptable forms
as well
So um we're we're hopeful that we were able to
help voters be prepared when they came to vote
Hi good morning Grace
Have Wral
Uh We just wanted to ask we've heard from a
number of people who have experienced some issues with delays
with the mail in ballots uh specifically through UPS
So kind of a two pronged question for you first
What are we seeing statewide with mail in ballot delays
and any issues And then secondly what is the guarantee
for voters who did follow the appropriate steps that their
ballots will make it in time Let me double check
that we've got the same information
Are you hearing delays through uh UPS or U SPS
Uh Ups for individuals who are told specifically through Wake
County
One woman was told to mail her through UPS overnight
it to make it in time
She was told it would get there by 1030 this
morning
It's still not there
Ok
Obviously
Um you know we have the ballot track system that
allows a voter to track their mail
Mail ballot is through the US Postal service and the
intelligent mail barcode if you know we we did try
to get the word out to voters that you know
the deadline is 730 pm election day today
Um And that they may have to take extra efforts
Uh But you know I can't speak for UPS or
fedex or any of the commercial delivery services
Uh Generally you know in my experience they will let
you know whether they can deliver truly overnight or if
there's some other delay
So I would hope that they would have communicated that
to the voter
Um But the reality is our law states very clearly
now it must be in the hands of the county
board of elections by 730 pm election day
Uh So let's hope that the man in the brown
truck gets that package to Wake County this afternoon
Yes
Uh Brian Anderson with Anderson alerts
Thanks for the time and the accessibility
Uh You said earlier that you estimate about 98% of
votes
Uh Tonight is what we will see
Can you sh share a breakdown of uh the time
frame What will we see at 730 What we'll see
at 830 what we'll see at 930 there
Um And you know 98% of the votes is pretty
standard uh for North Carolina it's just the timing of
those being released is gonna be a little different this
election
So uh at 7:30 p.m. or when the polls close
uh the the county boards will be able to release
their absentee by mail ballots
Um As y'all I think are aware uh we had
over 240,000 ballots cast absentee by mail
So those will be the first results that we see
following at that point at the close of polls
Then the county boards can close their early voting tabulating
tabulators
Um And then uh they'll remove the the flash drive
and be able to upload those into their uh counting
software and aggregate and up and and upload from that
So um you know at that you know anticipating you
know we had over uh over 400 early voting sites
So that's over 400 tabulators that often have to be
shut down
And in some of these counties you know we had
over 20 I believe in Wake County and over 30
in in Mecklenburg County uh sites for early voting
So it's just gonna take some time
So there will not be a precise point where we
say it's X time on the clock and all early
voting results are uploaded they're just going to be um
entered in as as they are able to get the
machines closed down and the tabulation taken care of um
they will you know potentially be doing that as election
day results come in
And um and those are gonna be sporadic too because
in order to you know you've got to close down
your polling like and then bring those results and the
ballots back to the county board of elections
And you having been a county elections director I can
tell you that my my father's most precinct it was
on a good day a 45 minute drive to the
county board of elections down a two lane winding mountain
road
Um so we you know even in even in you
know Metropolitan Wake County we have some you know far
outreach in areas that it'll still take time to get
those in
And then just regardless of what you say regardless of
what we report there's going to be a segment of
the population that is disappointed with the results
Tonight there's gonna be a subset of that that will
not accept the outcome and believe something was wrong or
afoot
What is your message to those people who will inevitably
say something went wrong Well I hope that everyone will
have patience in knowing that you know tonight you know
we are going to put forward the results of at
least you know 4.5 million votes that have been cast
and potentially another million or more that will be cast
today
Uh That's not instant and there are yeah and we
are always very clear that the results are unofficial on
election night and are very you know conscientious to or
conscious conscientious about explaining these processes
Um We don't call results
That's the you know especially on election night that's done
by the media and the candidates and it's North Carolina
we're likely to have some close contests
And so that's why tomorrow we'll release a report that
tells uh everyone how many provisional ballots we need to
research
And that may you know in help people to realize
you know we've got a number of provisional ballots that
could change the outcome of a very close election especially
when you get to a contest the size of perhaps
a county commissioner race or something of that nature
Um And so you know what I would really encourage
the public to do is to be aware of what
the processes are come see how we do the sample
hand to eye audit come and be a part of
that certification meeting where the county board uh staff will
put in front of their county members
You know this is how we got to our vote
totals
This is how uh those bipartisan officials in those polling
places but you know follow chain of custody procedures and
and so forth
This is you know those will be the results where
we show this is how many people checked in that's
our voter history process versus how many ballots were put
into the machine
And those are usually exact matches or very close to
um uh exact and have good reason why they might
not have been
And so um you know I I really do hope
that the fact that we have bipartisan transparent elections in
North Carolina gives people the confidence
Um I feel that when you have this many people
turning out to vote that that's an indication of their
confidence in our election processes
Um And you know we'll get there for the the
results as well
I hope
Thank you
Thank you Helen Coster from Reuters
Thank you for the opportunity
Um Can you speak to whether the state's election process
has been impacted by the misinformation around non voting And
if so what that looks like if there there have
been a lot of questions not only in North Carolina
but across our country about uh noncitizen voting
And I don't believe that it's been impactful to our
processes
Uh We have been able to address how we register
individuals the processes that we go through uh to ensure
that eligible voters are on our rolls
And then being very specific to remind people that when
they check in to vote an individual is stating their
name and their address when they present themselves to vote
we look them up into our system ensure that they
are an eligible registered voter
They present photo ID
And um you know it it it that's just the
process
It's the checks and balances that are within our system
We have not for all the concern around it
We have not seen um any number of challenges to
someone's citizenship as being part of our roles
Uh When we have had that suggested our investigations team
has checked into it
Uh So we you know we feel very confident that
you know eligible North Carolinians have been able to cast
their ballot and a follow up to that is you
did mention that you haven't seen any significant challenges to
voter rolls
Um Could you just elaborate on I know you just
touched on it
But um what kind of challenges have you seen um
to date on voter eligibility challenges Paul do you want
I I don't even think we've had enough challenges to
enumerate them but yeah yeah
So so there haven't been really any to speak of
uh or very few to speak of actual challenges by
voters to another voter at the polls
Um We we do have a new period of time
now after the election that absentee ballot challenges are allowed
So we'll see if if those um arise after the
election
Um The county boards of elections do their own audit
of the eligibility of their voters
And so if they find out for example that a
voter cast a vote and then died or a voter
cast a ballot in early voting and then uh was
convicted of a felony sentence
They become ineligible to vote in that election
And the county boards themselves will uh go through a
challenge process when a voter is clearly ineligible based on
official records
And so those are really the most of the ones
that we're dealing with right now
It's just the one offs here and there where uh
a voter became ineligible after casting a vote
Um or you know the the handful of cases where
a voter got confused and you know we went to
one county versus another et cetera
Uh just just those sort of administrative issues with making
sure that the only eligible voters are casting ballots
I think we're ready to go to the phone or
online questions
Uh We have one question from online 13 news
Now please go ahead
Good morning
Um I was just gonna ask if the early voting
process would be considered you know a success for you
guys
Is there anything that changed this year that helped drive
this massive turnout And has it changed the way you
are processing this election Well I definitely think that we
had a successful early voting period
Uh that has been the most popular voting method for
North Carolinians for most of our major election in recent
years and we continue to see the use of that
voting method grow
Uh So we prepared for that
I think you know if we've learned anything the pandemic
actually helped us to be better prepared for the large
turnout of voting during the early voting period where we
learned how to do social distancing and spacing and realize
that larger facilities more parking more voting booths more check
in stations that were for social distancing purposes actually are
just good logistical purposes
And we saw a lot of the counties still have
a large number of early voting sites
These larger facilities were in use and you know it
really has made for a very smooth process in this
election
Uh We you know we heard reports of some lines
but a lot of the counties had implemented uh way
tracking tools and so voters were able to to learn
which site maybe had less of a line or no
line and took advantage of that
Uh And it just overall was was an excellent process
and I commend uh the county election officials for working
through that and realizing um you know how to serve
the voters uh during that that early voting period
Are there any other questions online Please press one if
you have a question Havana win with the Ninth Street
Journal Europe
Hello thank you so much for doing this
Um So we know that the military overseas and provisional
ballots are going to be added to the state vote
total sometime during the 10 day canvas period
Um I was just wondering if you guys had any
more specific dates about when these numbers will be released
specific dates about the military and overseas voters
Is that what the question was and provisionals too as
well as the provisional ballot the military and us citizens
who are living abroad
We are able to count those ballots uh nine days
following the election
So there those could still be considered um at that
point in time as part of the canvas process uh
in the in the certification meeting that the county boards
will hold on
November 15th the provisional ballots uh the counties will assess
those uh as you know they figure out how many
they're dealing with and whether it requires research with the
DMV to determine if someone did attempt to register
And that just didn't process over to us since that's
the way most people do register to vote is through
the DMV
Uh So it'll be a matter of how much research
do they have to do Do they have a series
of board meetings Um or do they wait until uh
the day before or the day of the certification meeting
which would be the typical time frame for most counties
to hold their provisional board meetings
Next question Peter Chao with ABC News Europe
Hi
Um I just wanted to ask about turnout
I understand that the 10 a.m. numbers aren't available yet
But um in terms of what we've seen since 7
a.m. is anything kind of above or below average
You mentioned not seeing major lines at some polling places
I think you know the reports that we have is
that voting has just been steady
Um We had you know everybody gets a kick out
of the fact that I talk about the weather all
the time but weather impacts voting and we have had
good weather today
There was some fog in certain areas and so that
may have slowed some people getting to the polls first
thing this morning
Uh But I think as the day continues and we
do 10 o'clock checks and a four o'clock check
We're gonna find that it's been a steady day of
voting
And when you consider that we're anticipating a million million
and a half people uh likely to vote today and
that's dispersed acro across more than 2600 polling places
You know the likelihood of lines is not as great
as when you have um you know over 4 million
people going through uh the voting sites during the early
voting period
So uh we you know fully anticipate to be able
to uh quickly and efficiently serve those voters as they
go to their election day
Polling places
There are no more callers online
Well I think we're good to go
Oh I'm sorry
Oh David I missed you apologies
Um this might be a little bit more for the
county county boards but I'm wondering if you could address
it
Uh everyone is used to watching on Election Day and
you have someone like John King from CNN pointing to
a board saying oh we got 50% of this county
in
But how will the rest of these break and sometimes
different precincts in counties take longer to get to the
place where they need to be counted
Could you explain how that process works Why it ta
why it might take longer to get some votes counted
in some parts of counties than others What that delay
is for So having been a county elections director uh
and working as a field specialist for the counties I'm
very familiar uh with with these processes
I think one thing we have to consider when a
precinct might be running later than another did they have
voters in line at 7:30 p.m. And those lines could
be you know 20 or 30 voters easily
And that's not gonna get processed in five or 10
minutes
So you've got to allow for that
Uh you also you know it may be a newer
set of workers who are being more meticulous aren't as
familiar with the process
And so they're following uh every line of the book
to make sure they get it right
Um or it may just be that someone's that you
know uh particular anyway even if they're a long serving
workers
So um it might also be you know depending on
the county depending on how many people they were able
to put in as personnel
Um if they don't have you know a large group
of workers then it's gonna be more work for fewer
people to do
So you know there could be any number of reasons
Uh no one should take that as being anything more
than them upholding their oath to get it done
Right
And to be uh accurate I will say it it
probably grates on some nerves in uh the outside of
elections world when you're looking
But uh our job and our our effort is to
not necessarily be quick
We want to be correct and we want to be
accurate
And so that's what we're we're seeking when we're closing
down the polls when we're uploading the results
And when we're announcing those to the public
Yes I just add one other item
Just one second
I'll just hold on
Brian
Brian give me one second
I just wanted to add to to the question that
you know the the size of the county the population
of the county could really play into this as well
in our large urban counties
Uh There's only one computer secure computer where results are
gonna get uploaded
Uh And so if you've got over 200 voting sites
like Wake County does or Mecklenburg County does over 100
like Guilford County does you're gonna it's it's gonna take
longer for all of those to get processed and put
into the system because you have a one a single
point of entry for all that at the county board
office
So so just the volume in the larger counties is
gonna make a difference as well as in the rural
counties that have a lot of space to cover to
bring the results back
That's also gonna take some time
So I just wanna make sure everybody's aware of that
and and patient with the results coming in
That's a great point Paul thank you
Ok Brian we have one online
Uh they went ahead and dropped so we are no
more callers online
Then we are uh calling this complete and we look
forward to having a smooth election day
If you have not voted yet
Please do so
Polls close at 7:30 p.m. tonight
Go to N CS be.gov to use the voter search
tool to look up your voter registration information to locate
your precinct polling location and to see your sample ballot
Thank you and have a great election day
Everyone
really quick everyone based on the