Politics

STATE DELAY BOOTS CANVASS TO NEXT WEEK

Elections Board members Deborah Dante, Chair Robert Heltman and Tom Wilson reviewed absentee ballots on Friday, Nov. 11.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 18, 2016

It could be a month before the state Board of Elections officially confirms the vote count in the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election and a recount could not begin until that final convass, Henderson County Elections Director Beverly Cunningham said Friday.

A federal court order, a razor-thin gubernatorial race and the scrutiny of observers from both parties poses uncertainty as 100 county elections boards undertake the process to certify the Nov. 8 election.

Gov. Pat McCrory, who trails Democratic challenger Roy Cooper by 5,001 votes after Election Day and one-stop votes were counted, gained 15 votes when the Henderson County Board of Elections tabulated absentee ballots it had approved. McCrory won the absentee vote, 83-68, padding his lead in Henderson County to 11,124. The board on Friday counted 173 absentee ballots and added those to the previous totals.

"I don't think it's signficant at all," Terry Lyda, who was observing the county canvass for the Democratic Party, said of McCrory's 15-vote gain in heavily Republican Henderson County. "It's going to take something really crazy somewhere" to allow McCrory to overtake Cooper. "I'm thrilled. 83-68 is excellent for the absentee count."

After it approved and tabulated the absentee votes, the elections board could take no other action in what is usually a routine canvass to certify the elections results. The state Board of Elections has directed the 100 county elections boards to wait until the state Division of Motor Vehicles researches voter registrations it has received.

"Since these races are so close they want to make sure the information they provided is accurate," Cunningham said.

Henderson County has 243 provisional ballots that have not yet been vetted and approved. They cannot be counted until the board blesses or rejects them.

The state Board of Elections canvass, originally set for Nov. 28, has already been pushed back.

"I'm hearing they're going to reset it for the first or second week of December now," she said.

Elections Board Chairman Robert Heltman explained the process to a roomful of observers, on hand mostly to monitor the governor's race.

"We were all hoping we would be done at the end of today," he said. "That is not the case."

The board will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday. There's no guarantee that the state will have completed its research on the DMV-generated registration even then, Cunningham said.

Heltman and Tom Wilson, a Democrat and the previous chair, said they had never seen a delay this long.

"This seems to be a unique situation," Heltman said.

The McCrory campaign has filed elections complaints in 52 counties, claiming that irregularities could favor his opponent. None has been filed in Henderson County. Both Republicans and Democrats praised the Henderson County's elections administration as above board and accurate.

"We're just lucky we've got the people here that we have," Lyda said. "I feel very confident in these people."

Michael Edney, the county commissioner and an attorney, was retained by the state Republican Party to monitor the canvass.

"In Henderson County we've got a great board and great staff," he said. "Clearly they know what they're doing."

Josh Lawson, the general counsel of the state Elections Board, sent a memo to county elections boards at 5 p.m. Wednesday that directed the local boards to wait for a verification of voters' eligibility before counting the provisional votes.

The state Board of Elections signaled in a news release on Thursday the likelihood that Friday's canvass may not produce a final result.

The canvass "is followed by a final certification of statewide totals by the State Board of Elections," the N.C. Board of Elections said. "Counties may, however, delay canvass for a 'reasonable time' if the initial counting has not been completed," the state Elections Board said. "Many, if not all, counties are expected to do just that. Postponing canvass is necessary when certain decisions have not been made regarding provisional ballots, certain types of election protests are pending, or a delay is necessary to comply with a judicial order. The counties have good reason to extend their canvasses this year, including a recent court order."

"In the final days of early voting, a federal court required election officials and the Division of Motor Vehicles to create a new review process for certain voters who claim they registered or changed their address at the DMV, even if no record of registration could be found."

After counties canvass, a statewide candidate who trails by 10,000 votes or fewer may demand a recount by noon on the second business day. If a recount is demanded, the counties would conduct recounts individually in public view.

A recount is a near certainty in the governor's race and likely in the state auditor election, where Democratic incumbent Beth Wood leads Republican challenger Chuck Stuber by 2,670 votes.

“With each passing day, we discover more and more cases of voting fraud and irregularities,” McCrory campaign manager Russell Peck said in a news release. “We intend to make sure that every vote is properly counted and serious voter fraud concerns are addressed before the results of the election can be determined.”