North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory Files for Recount as Challenger’s Lead Grows

Two weeks after Election Day, North Carolina’s governor race is still far from being settled – and the race is getting increasingly hostile. Pat McCrory on Wednesday morning. “It may be because he needs those fraudulent votes to count in order to win”. A lot of them are, though, and usually that’s enough to decide the race and for the loser to concede defeat. Additionally, there are 60,000 provisional ballots that need to be evaluated before they can be counted.

“It’s 40 days until I take the oath of office”, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper proclaimed on November 22.

Generally, all this is done by the week after the election.

Except for a protest over the counting of 94,000 early votes in Durham County – rejected unanimously by the local board – the number of ballots at issue in other disclosed protests is less than the race’s current margin. The SBE says it’s more than 6,600 votes, a slight increase on the original, but the Cooper campaign argues it’s more than 8,000.

On Saturday, the Cooper campaign responded.

All year, the two fought over a law to restrict transgender people’s access to restrooms – McCrory was an ardent supporter, while Cooper said it was discriminatory.

The lingering North Carolina gubernatorial race battle taking place in county and state board of elections meetings is now headed to court too.

“When someone files a protest, we have to take it seriously”.

About 100 protesters gathered Tuesday night outside the governor’s mansion singing and waving signs with messages such as “Hit the Road Pat”, as shown in video posted by The Charlotte Observer. But state officials have the right to conduct a recount – at their discretion – if the spread is more than 10,000 votes.

If McCrory successfully casts enough doubt on the election results, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature might cast the deciding vote in the contest. “We are confident that a recount will do nothing to change the fact that Roy Cooper has won this election”.

What voter fraud is McCrory claiming?

“The evidence of fraud is in the tens of cases, not in the thousands of cases”, Guillory said. “Roy Cooper thinks he’s the Governor-elect of what?”

As his lead has grown, Cooper has gone ahead and begun planning for his administration.

Meanwhile, Cooper has named a transition team and looks to move forward, despite the possibility of a full recount.

Woodhouse dismissed calls this week for McCrory to concede.

McCrory finished less than 10,000 votes behind Cooper, the state’s attorney general, allowing him the opportunity to ask for a recount under North Carolina law.

Is there anything else at play? Same-day voter registrants tend to lean Democrat.

Counties were originally supposed to finish their counts by Friday.

“(Republican lawmakers) have a veto-proof supermajority, so the idea that they would dramatically threaten their credibility to reinstall Pat McCrory over the will of the voters seems like a stretch”, he said.