North Carolina court race is extremely close as counties complete election tallies

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An already close race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat reached a razor-thin margin as most counties on Friday completed final tallies from the Nov. 5 election, setting the stage for possible recounts next week.

With about 90 of the state’s 100 counties finished counting, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, a registered Democrat, and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin were essentially even among the over 5.5 million votes cast in their race. On election night, Griffin, a Court of Appeals judge, led by roughly 10,000 votes. Vote tally adjustments in the remaining counties were expected.

State law lets a trailing candidate in a statewide race seek a machine recount, which involves running ballots again through tabulator machines, when the official margin is 10,000 votes or less. Either Riggs, one of the two Democrats on the seven-member court, or Griffin would have until early next week to decide.

The recount would be completed before the State Board of Elections completes its canvass and certifies results on Nov. 26.

Griffin’s lead dwindled as tens of thousands of provisional and absentee ballots examined by county elections boards in recent days and determined to have met qualifying standards were added to election night totals. Elections boards in all counties met to consider any challenges or protests, upload their totals to state election board computers and certify their results as official.

At least six county boards won’t finish their canvassing work Friday, with most resuming on Monday, a state board statement said. The counties include those where the cities of Winston-Salem and Fayetteville are located.

Complete, canvassed results in areas with very close legislative races, which like the Supreme Court contest have not been called by The Associated Press, still indicate that Republicans are unlikely to maintain their veto-proof majority in the General Assembly.

A House seat that covers two rural counties north of the Raleigh-Durham area is the key race. Canvassed results showed first-term GOP Rep. Frank Sossamon trailing Democrat Bryan Cohn by 233 votes. The margin was within the recount-request range for legislative seats of 1 percentage point.

Should Cohn win, Democrats would hold at least 49 of the 120 House seats — one more than needed to end the Republicans’ current veto-proof majority in the chamber when the next two-year session begins in January. That would give Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein a more robust veto stamp to block GOP legislation he opposes.

Senate Republicans maintained their supermajority by winning the necessary 30 seats in their chamber. But results were still close enough in elections for two of the 50 seats that recounts could be sought. Democrats led in both.

Also in the House, Mecklenburg County state Rep. Tricia Cotham still led Democratic opponent Nicole Sidman after Friday’s local canvass. The 216-vote margin is within the recount range. Sidman suggested Friday on X that a recount was likely.

It was Cotham’s switch from the Democrats to the Republicans in April 2023 that secured the necessary 72 House seats to override Cooper’s vetoes in both chambers by relying solely on GOP lawmakers. Cotham has since been targeted electorally by Democrats.

Friday’s results otherwise didn’t affect the outcome of other state and federal races on the Nov. 5 ballot, including Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race, Democrat Josh Stein’s win for governor and Democrat Jeff Jackson’s victory for attorney general.

Some of the more than 60,000 provisional ballots considered since Election Day were labeled as such because a voter wasn’t able to show an acceptable photo identification. Other provisional ballots can be cast by people who try to vote on Election Day at the wrong precinct site.

A new state law taking effect this year required traditional absentee ballots to be turned in by the close of Election Day polls. But the law directs those received on Election Day to be counted during the canvassing period. Mailed military and overseas ballots could be received later and counted if postmarked by Election Day.

Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press