Official NC midterm election results could take some time to know. Here’s why
When polls close on Election Day in North Carolina, thousands of election workers will work to count millions of ballots to determine the winners of each contest.
Will voters know the official results when they go to bed tonight?
Not exactly.
Unofficial results will be reported on the Election Results Dashboard, which can be accessed on the N.C. State Board of Elections website.
The dashboard will be updated as county boards of elections report results to the state once polls close at 7:30 p.m., according to the NCSBE. This process can take time since results from voting sites must be physically delivered to each county’s board of elections office.
Polling hours could also be extended beyond 7:30 p.m. due to disruptions, “such as power outages, tabulator or printer jams or long lines at some voting places,” which could further delay the election results, according to the NCSBE.
Election officials never call a race for any candidate, but trailing candidates will sometimes concede their race “if they realize they cannot make up the vote differential with the ballots still uncounted.”
After the election, all county boards of elections will audit and certify the results through a process called canvass, according to the NCSBE. The county boards will certify the results for local elections on Nov. 18. The results for all other contests will be certified by the NCSBE on Nov. 29.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Official NC midterm election results could take some time to know. Here’s why."
