With the election underway in North Carolina, The Chronicle is providing insights into national and state-level races and recapping the results.
NCSBE announces post-election ballot audit
11/05/24 4:50 p.m.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections announced that it will be randomly selecting precincts, early voting locations and absentee-by-mail ballots in every county to audit post-election. The audit process is required by state law for the 2024 general election, according to the Election Day announcement.
In the auditing process, the two voting groups from each of North Carolina’s 100 county boards of elections will count the votes for the presidential election by hand. After, those numbers will be compared with the official voting machine counts.
The process will begin at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and will be accessible to the public online or over the phone.
Election audits are conducted to detect equipment tampering, ballot stuffing and voting machine or counting errors, according to the board’s website.
-Abby Spiller
Two precincts’ voting hours extended
11/05/24, 4:43 p.m.
Polls in almost all N.C. precincts are set to close at 7:30 p.m. Voters waiting in line when polling locations close will still be allowed to cast a ballot.
Gardens Elementary School, a precinct in Wilson County, has extended its voting hours by 30 minutes to 8 p.m. According to a report from WRAL, some voters were unable to cast ballots and were turned away this morning after poll workers were “unable to print authorization to vote forms.” Poll workers reportedly did not note down contact information for voters turned away.
Pilot Mountain, a precinct in Burke County, was also given an extension until 8 p.m. due to a technical issue.
The N.C. State Board of Elections held an emergency meeting earlier this afternoon to consider and approve the delay. The board voted unanimously to approve the extension for Gardens Elementary School and 4-1 for Pilot Mountain, with one Republican member dissenting.
Times have not been extended in counties affected by Hurricane Helene. The NCSBE previously approved a number of changes to absentee and in-person voting processes for 13 counties in western North Carolina most impacted by the storm.
-Samanyu Gangappa
The Final Forecasts
11/05/24 3:46 p.m.
Pundits and analysts have frozen their forecasts as of this morning. Here are the election predictions for contested races across the state:
President
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Leans Republican
Decision Desk HQ: Toss-up
538: Toss-up
Cook Political Report: Toss-up
Race to the White House: Toss-up
Governor
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Likely Democrat
Cook Political Report: Likely Democrat
Race to the White House: Safe Democrat
U.S. House of Representatives, NC-01
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Leans Democrat
Decision Desk HQ: Leans Democrat
538: Likely Democrat
Cook Political Report: Toss-up
Race to the White House: Likely Democrat
U.S. House of Representatives, NC-04
Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Safe Democrat
Decision Desk HQ: Safe Democrat
538: Safe Democrat
Cook Political Report: Safe Democrat
Race to the White House: Safe Democrat
For those of you wondering why we don’t have predictions of down ballot contests: Polling data is usually hard to come by for down ballot races, even if they are dominating the headlines. As a result, pundits typically do not issue forecasts for them. This week, there was only one nonpartisan poll covering North Carolina’s statewide races aside from the gubernatorial race, which only covered the races for attorney general and superintendent of instruction.
-Samanyu Gangappa
N.C. governor: Comparing Stein and Cooper’s bids
11/05/24 2:56 p.m.
In the race for the N.C. governor’s mansion, Democratic nominee Josh Stein has a double-digit lead per the most recent opinion polls — a stark departure from previous election cycles. If Stein wins by a significant margin tonight, it would go against both his and incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper’s electoral histories.
When he first ran for statewide office in the 2016 attorney general election, then-state Sen. Stein won with 50.27% of the vote, a margin of just 24,613 votes. In 2020, Stein’s win was even narrower, winning 50.1% in a race that came down to 13,624 votes. The race was not called until two weeks after Election Day.
Cooper was Stein’s predecessor as attorney general. In 2016, Cooper won the gubernatorial election by just over 10,000 votes, securing 49% of the overall vote. His 2020 victory was more substantial, when he won by a 4.5% margin.
Both candidates — Cooper and Stein — outperformed the Democratic Party’s nominees for president in their respective down-ballot races in the past two cycles. Stein outperformed Cooper in 2016, winning the attorney general position with 50.27% of the vote compared to Cooper’s gubernatorial victory with 49%. In 2020, Cooper did better than Stein, reelected with 51.5% of the vote compared to Stein’s 50.1%.
Polls could also be overestimating Stein as they did with Cooper in 2020, when he led then-Lt. Gov. Dan Forest by eight to 19 points in all but one poll taken in the final two weeks before Election Day. Though, Cooper has historically been more popular than Stein. While Stein had a 37% favorability rating compared to 18% unfavorable in March, Cooper’s approval rating stood at 48.1% to 36.4% disapproval the following month.
-Samanyu Gangappa
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Samanyu Gangappa is a Trinity sophomore and local/national news editor for the news department.
Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Abby Spiller is a Trinity junior and editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 120th volume.