North Carolina-Governor story

North Carolina’s elections director says work continues on matching DMV data with people who thought they registered to vote at driver’s license offices but were told by local election officials they didn’t. Pat McCrory (R) is not conceding in the razor-thin race to his Democratic challenger Roy Cooper, who is now ahead by only 5,000 votes.

Meanwhile, the Wake County Board of Elections on Friday threw out three ballots Friday but ruled there was no probable cause to investigate 20 others.

Though many assumed a Trump win would carry McCrory, the governor took 62,902 fewer votes than his party’s presidential candidate statewide.

McCrory’s campaign filed complaints in more than half of North Carolina’s 100 counties, alleging in some cases that votes were cast by convicted felons, repeat voters or the dead.

Asked by The Associated Press to present evidence for the allegations, the campaign offered challenges in Guilford County filed by a Greensboro voter, who claims that a dead person in High Point cast a ballot.

The Bladen County Improvement Association PAC filed reports with the North Carolina State Board of Elections admitting they paid these individuals multiple payments for “G.O.T.V.” or “Get-Out-The-Vote” operations.

Democratic Supreme Court candidate Mike Morgan also unseated Bob Edmunds, the Republican incumbent, by nearly 10 points – one of election night’s big surprises.

Baker said the board would release a complete list of all provisional ballots, the voter’s names and whether they were accepted or denied – and why – after the state returned the county’s batch of provisionals. The first of those counties that began deliberating those protests on Friday overwhelmingly rejected them.

“Voter fraud is like insider trading, if you’re not looking for it, you don’t find it”, said Governor McCrory spokesman Ricky Diaz.

Tom Stark spoke Friday after the Republican-majority Durham County elections board voted unanimously to dismiss his bid to recount 94,000 votes. Pat McCrory by less than 5,000 votes, or 0.11 percent, but the numbers shift as each county decides on challenges.

“I’ve been involved in representing people on winning ends and losing ends of close elections”, said Elias after a round of Cooper wins.

“Meanwhile, almost 60,000 provisional ballots are being considered and thrown out or counted by local election boards”.

Smith also said the Board of Elections received a protest from Brunswick County GOP Chairman Joe Agovino. “We hope that with this clear margin of victory, Governor McCrory will stop all efforts to undermine the results of this election”.

A Friday deadline has come and gone with Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper still leading Republican Gov. McCrory’s campaign is supporting challenges of votes cast in Durham, Bladen and other counties. “It’s unfortunate to see that rather than accepting election results, Pat McCrory is going to go down by besmirching Republican election officials and the voters of North Carolina”. Staff recommendations must then be approved or amended by local boards of election before the eligible votes are counted.