Thousands of North Carolinians can still make their votes count in this year’s election

The Bottom Line from NC Newsline

All five living former North Carolina governors have filed a motion in support of Gov. Roy Cooper's court challenge to the legislature's attempt to overhaul how state and county election boards are appointed. (Photo: Clayton Henkel).

In the event you thought this year’s election was over and all of the races decided – hold on a minute.

It turns out tens of thousands of ballots that North Carolina voters cast are yet to be counted.

That’s because there are many circumstances – most notably when people forget their photo ID or show up at the wrong precinct – that voters get to cast so-called provisional ballots that only get counted
later.

And for those who lacked ID, their ballots won’t be counted at all unless they return to their county board of elections with a proper ID to show by this Thursday, November 14.

Could these provisional ballots make a difference? Absolutely.

Some state legislative races were decided by just a few dozen votes. Even at the state level, Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs trails in her race by less than a tenth of one percent.

The bottom line: It would be tragic if any candidate in any race lost because not all of their supporters’ votes were counted. Let’s hope that North Carolina voters show up to prevent such a scenario.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.