McCrory had previously said he would seek a statewide recount on November 22 after initially claiming potential voter fraud in over 50 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
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Candidates must be within 10,000 votes of the apparent victor after the final canvass before they can call for a recount. HRC and ENC also released a series of ads targeting pro-equality voters, including “Lennie & Pearl for Roy Cooper” and “Pat McCrory: Bad for Business”. McCrory, teaming up with GOP lawmakers, has tried every trick in the book to pull out a win, by challenging ballots, trying to get large groups of votes declared invalid, and none of it has worked. “That is where we are”. Over the weekend, the McCrory campaign offered to withdraw its recount request if elections officials in Durham recounted their ballots.
“I think they’re probably hoping they create some static so that they can claim there’s something going on when there’s nothing”, Elias said. It’s unclear what would happen if all the counting isn’t completed by then.
The state board of elections is working to certify results by the end of next week. The questions about the ballots in Durham County deserve answers to the satisfaction of the public, as much as the law allows and as is possible. There have since been various allegations of voting irregularities in the county.
Cooper’s lead must be less than 10,000 votes in order for McCrory to call for a statewide recount. Pat McCrory has refused to concede, alleging improper vote counting, dead people and felons swung the vote for his Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Roy Cooper. McCrory said earlier Wednesday he’s letting the elections process play itself out. “We have a duty, and we feel a full duty to help make sure there is confidence in the outcome”.
More than 90,000 ballots were cast in the 2016 election through same-day registration, the lawsuit said, although a small percentage of these applicants – perhaps 3 percent – are usually rejected.
A federal judge scheduled a hearing Friday to consider a request by the conservative-leaning Civitas Institute to force the state board to delay finalizing vote totals until the addresses of everyone who registered to vote during early voting are verified.
McCrory’s legal counsel Tuesday rejected the board’s request for three attorneys from the Brooks Pierce law firm.
Cooper, now the state’s attorney general, was a major opponent of HB 2, passed in March.
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“Cooper’s ad campaign may have made a difference, particularly in building up McCrory’s negatives”, said John Dinan, professor of political science at Wake Forest University. Durham County voted for Cooper overwhelmingly with Cooper receiving 78.56 percent of the vote (122,047 votes), according to the State Board of Elections.
