Early voting starts in NC on Thursday, but...

[moose65]

Early in-person voting starts on Thursday in NC. Before that happens, I thought I’d look at absentee mail-in ballots so far. As of this morning, just over 473,000 ballots have been received. In the entire 2016 election cycle, there were about 191,000 mail-in ballots received!

NC has a Democratic Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, who has been in office a long time. We also now have a Dem governor and Democrats control the Board of Elections. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about this election, for now!

[getagrip_already]

1. what is nc policy on counting mail in or early ballots?

Can they start counting them when polls open or do they have to wait until polls close?

[moose65]

3. As far as I know....

I think the early and absentee totals drop first, right after the polls close.

[W_HAMILTON]

7. This is correct.

North Carolina can actually start counting absentee/mail-in ballots almost two weeks before the election, but it is illegal to release the results of the votes before Election Day.

Here is a good link on when the individual states can begin processing and then counting their absentee/mail-in votes: https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx

[lindysalsagal]

2. WOW! NC is in play??????

Damn!!!

[moose65]

4. Oh yeah

We’ve been quite swingy lately. Obama narrowly carried NC in 08, then Romney won it by a small margin, as did Trump. We kicked out our Republican governor in 16 and made gains in the state legislature in 18.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Get your swing on! NC!

[lostnfound]

6. I am too, but

I’m pissed that our chances for a senate seat have gone from somewhat promising to a nail biter...
For such a stupid reason. Grrr.

[moose65]

8. I know

Stupid. If this had happened 10 or 20 years ago it would be easier to write it off. I don’t get these politicians who do this kind of shit in the midst of running for election. They have to know that every move they make will be scrutinized.

I’m still voting for Cunningham, but if he loses I won’t be surprised.

[lostnfound]

9. I voted and contributed.

But dang if we lose the senate over this, well, a disastrous error on his part, to say the least.

[moose65]

10. Update

Today, there have been 493,000 absentee ballots received.