RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina State Board of Elections certified the results of the presidential and most statewide and legislative races on Tuesday, while a state court seat and a handful of other races remain in limbo amid ongoing recounts.
Among the key seats awaiting confirmed results due to ongoing recounts or filed election protests is a tight state Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs and GOP opponent Jefferson Griffin. Riggs currently leads, and if she clinches the seat, Republicans would still have a majority on the bench.
A handful of General Assembly seats — including one state House seat that could break the GOP legislative supermajority if it remains in Democrats’ favor — are also outstanding.
That crucial seat resides in Granville County and parts of Vance County, where Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon is the incumbent. He was last shown trailing Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn by 233 votes, but the race is undergoing a recount and Sossamon has filed an election protest.
The other state legislative races under recount are two Senate seats and another House seat, according to the state elections board.
Most races were certified at the meeting, including President-Elect Donald Trump’s 16 electoral votes from North Carolina and Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein’s gubernatorial win over Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
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As part of Trump’s electoral gains across the country in November, he made further inroads in North Carolina and improved on his margin of victory — growing from just over 1% in 2020 to more than 3 percentage points this year. Trump has won the Tar Heel State in all three of his presidential campaigns.
In one of the state’s most prominent split-ticket examples, Stein handily defeated Robinson by almost 15 percentage points. Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson also defeated Republican congressman Dan Bishop for the attorney general’s office. Democrats won the lieutenant governor and superintendent of public education races, while Republicans flipped the state auditor’s office.
This year, election officials faced monumental challenges in the month leading up to the election after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina. Those difficulties were largely surmounted, which Democratic board member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen commended as part of a “well-run election.”
“There were a couple things I would have liked to have seen done faster or in different orders, and we can all talk about that when the dust settles,” she said.
North Carolina voters broke the record for most ballots cast — 5.7 million — in the state’s history, the board’s executive director Karen Brinson Bell said. However, total turnout fell a bit short of 2020, she said, which set the record at just over 75%.
While the board authenticated most races, the prevailing candidates won’t be issued their certificates of election until six days after completed canvassing. For races that are under recount or have protests pending, those candidates will likely wait longer.
The board will also need to consider Griffin’s request to recuse Millen — who the state GOP says has a conflict of interest because of her husband’s involvement in Riggs’ legal representation — from the board’s discussion on his election protest in the Supreme Court race. Consideration of the issue was postponed for a future meeting.
