Five key races not certified by North Carolina election board

(The Center Square) – Four Legislature races and one state Supreme Court race were not certified by the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday.

Notably, the state’s sole Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin is one of those currently under both recount and protest. Added at Tuesday’s meeting was a motion from Griffin’s legal team for recusal by Siobhan Millen from protests.

Millen’s husband, Pressly Millen, is a partner in the law firm representing Riggs’ in the election. Siobhan Millen is one of three Democrats on the state board chaired by Democrat Alan Hirsch.

“This motion is about ensuring integrity and impartiality in the election process,” said NCGOP Communications Director Matt Mercer in a statement. “The facts demonstrate a clear conflict of interest that undermines public confidence in the impartiality of the state board.”

Action on the petition was pushed off to another meeting.

“Given the tight schedule we always run in protest, I’m perfectly fine with our not considering it today, but am mindful we need to take it up sooner rather than later,” said Republican board member Stacy Eggers.

Last week, the board decided to consider three of the complaints listed in the election protests, while delegating the other three to county boards to consider.

This election season has not been smooth sailing for the embattled board, which has drawn eight lawsuits from multiple entities including both major state parties.

The Supreme Court race is the only statewide race being recounted or protested. Five legislative races were involved in recounts and one – Republican Rep. Allen Chesser defeated Democrat Lorenza Wilkins by 461 votes of more than 48,000 cast in District 25 – was certified.

Still yet to be certified are the races for Senate District 18 (Granville, Wake), ​Senate District 42 (Mecklenburg), House of Representatives District 32 (Granville, Vance)​, and House District 105 (Mecklenburg).

Five local races are also yet to be certified.

Karen Brinson Bell, the board’s executive director, said she is grateful for all the state and local election officials that made the election possible.

“The credit goes to the staff and the 100 county board staff members who have worked and are all still working,” she said.

A record number of ballots were cast in North Carolina, despite the devastation from Hurricane Helene, which struck after absentee by mail had been distributed.

Voter turnout was 73%, with 5.7 million ballots cast, making it the second-highest voter turnout in the state’s history. The 2020 election had 75%.

Bell said this was especially notable in the aftermath of the hurricane.

“We had 25 counties affected by Hurricane Helene, and yet we still were able to deliver voting, and had the roads to the isolated areas opened by Election Day,” Bell said. “It is pretty phenomenal and I quite frankly, respect the hell out of them for what they’ve pulled off.”

During the certification process, the state board authenticated the 2024 general election results and authorized the issuance of election certificates.

This certification followed individual certifications made by all 100 county board of elections throughout the state, which were due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 15.

While not all counties met that deadline, they had all officially certified their county’s election results prior to the state election board meeting.

A mandatory post-election audit conducted by the state also found very few inconsistencies in the vote totals, Bell reported.

“We feel confident in the voter history audit,” Bell said. “The tabulators did perform accurately in this election.”