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Follow the latest news and information about voting and the 2020 election, including essential information about how to vote during a pandemic and more.

NC State Elections Board Expects Vast Majority Of Votes Reported Tuesday Night

WFAE
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WFAE

This article is made possible through a partnership between WFAE and Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of our republishing policy.

The director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections said she expects to report at least 97% of all ballots cast by the end of Election Day. That’s due to the huge share of people voting early.

The state elections board expects results from in-person early voting and processed absentee by mail ballots by 9 p.m. Tuesday. Election Day precincts will deliver their results to county boards, which will begin reporting them out at 8:30 p.m. North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell reminded voters of the process at a press briefing Monday.

"Please remember that all results reported on election night are unofficial," Brinson Bell said. "We will post results as quickly as possible, but our primary objective will be accuracy more than speed."

Absentee mail ballots received after 5 p.m. on Monday won’t be in the first batch of results. But those ballots will count if they’re postmarked before or on Election Day and received by 5 p.m. Nov. 12. Brinson Bell recommended voters to bring absentee ballots by mail to the post office to have them postmarked.

Provisional ballots cast at Election Day precincts won’t count toward the vote total until those voters have been verified. Brinson Bell says counties will hold canvass meetings on Nov. 13 and after that, the state board’s meeting on Nov. 24 will certify the results.

Tell us about your voting experience. Did it go smoothly? Were there any problems? How were the lines? Did you feel safe? If so, why or why not?

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Michael Falero is a radio reporter, currently covering voting and the 2020 election. He previously covered environment and energy for WFAE. Before joining WFAE in 2019, Michael worked as a producer for a number of local news podcasts based in Charlotte and Boston. He's a graduate of the Transom Story Workshop intensive on Cape Cod and UNC Chapel Hill.