Republican Mark Johnson overcame three-term Democratic incumbent June Atkinson to become North Carolina’s next superintendent of public instruction. Pat McCrory trailed Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper by about 5,000 votes – even though Republican U.S. Sen.
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Pat McCrory (R-N.C.). has lost his bid for re-election.
Terry Foushee, an 81-year-old registered Democrat from Roxboro, said he split his ballot by voting for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton but also Gov.
Democrat Mary Belk appears to have unseated N.C. Rep. Rob Bryan by about 600 votes in one of the most hotly contested state House races.
Given the chaos surrounding voting hours and voting precincts in the run up to the election, it’s no surprise we’d have a number of these left to count after election night. Those votes will be intensely scrutinized over the next several weeks to determine if they all should count.
At 12:30 p.m. EST, with a dozen precincts still to report, the popular vote totalled 2,276,384 for Cooper and 2,272,703 for McCrory. With nearly 5 million total ballots cast, the race as it stands now is subject to a recount. McCrory told media outlets he would not immediately concede the race. Opponents called the bill the most anti-LGBT in the United States and they refuse to let their grievances be quickly forgotten.
McCrory said the delayed results will allow the state to survey votes to come to a firm conclusion about the race’s outcome.
County election boards told the State Board of Elections by Wednesday afternoon that there were 21,000 provisional ballots – those that weren’t immediately counted at voting locations for various reasons. The McCrory campaign said it had “grave concerns over potential irregularities” in Durham. Instead, he said this race isn’t over until November 18th.
Four years ago, McCrory campaigned as a centrist, but it seems like he’s been pulled to the right by the legislature, including on House Bill 2, said Bob Estes, an engineer who voted for Cooper on Tuesday in Cary.
President Barack Obama has endorsed both Deborah Ross and Roy Cooper.
“Last night, the people of North Carolina chose a new Governor with new priorities”, Porter said.
“We need a new, fresh body in there to kind of clean what’s been kind of messed up, so I think Roy Cooper on a state level, would be a better pick”, she said.
But Cooper contends that tax cuts passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by McCrory only benefited a select few well-off North Carolinians.
The electorate hasn’t spoken until all the votes from Election Day, absentee, early and provisional ballots are counted and certified. Mail-in, military and overseas ballots also will continue to trickle in over the next week. Counties were uploading the data to the state board’s website on Wednesday. The state board denied that request, but extended voting for 20 minutes to 45 minutes at some precincts.
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While the numbers were close, Donald Trump pulled ahead with 50 percent of the vote, but those Trump supporters did not necessarily vote Republican down the ballot.
