Election Reflections, numero très …
In 2018, California’s congressional delegation had its GOP representation nearly wiped out WEEKS AFTER Election Day — thanks to various recounts and counts of dubious provisional and absentee ballots. Are we in for something like that in North Carolina in 2020?
It’s been eleven days since the actual, formal Election Day. Republican Paul Newby was actually leading incumbent Democrat Cheri Beasley in the race for state Supreme Court Chief Justice at the end of Election Night. But here we are — eleven days later — with Beasley *magically* and quite suddenly in the lead.
Newby’s election night lead was slim. So, it made a Beasley *comeback* quite easy to engineer. If this stands, we’ll be stuck with a 5-2 Democrat majority on the state Supreme Court with a Democrat calling the shots for that particular venue.
(Our two Republicans would include a lady who was regularly the most liberal Republican in the state Senate, and a guy who skates through life via his powerful daddy’s name.)
Newby is a solid conservative who operates in line with the state and federal constitutions. (In other words, he doesn’t make crap up — like so many of these black robed folks do.). It will be like a punch in the gut if politicos “counting” in back rooms weeks after the election get Newby off the court.
It’s outrageous that we’re still playing with vote totals nearly two weeks after the election. We saw something similar in Robeson County in 2018. The apparent winner on Election Night in that county’s district court race turned into the runner-up weeks later.
We’ve got too many pools of ballots out there — mail-ins, provisionals, early, et al. — thereby creating a heck of a three-card monte scam out of the process of selecting our leaders.
Remember — the rules for voting got changed right in the middle of early voting. Suddenly, we didn’t need all of this scrutiny, witness signatures and stuff on absentee ballots. Has it been arranged so that the Newby scheme can be applied to other races where Democrats lost to Republicans by narrow margins?
Who is surprised? Said election night, no way Newby survives. 7-10 days post-election would be the charm. And you have SBOE, Cooper, Stein and Dem County Bd’s leading the charge. Look no further than Columbus Co, Whiteville. See News Reporter’s account of county BOE staff. By law, had advertised and post on website, provisional and mail-in ballots would be counted on Thurs, 2 pm. When the News Reporter and candidates arrived on Thurs…they quickly discovered the ‘actual’ counting had begun at 11:00 with NO NOTICE and against state law. The BOE Chair suddenly became ill and had to depart and when staff questioned about mail-ins; the response was must go to PO to ‘check’? Think this is a joke? Read the News Reporter. THIS is why Newby will lose and any other close races will ALWAYS go to Dems. Stay tuned for what occurs in Columbus. Actually, ALL the ballots should be set aside; however unsure if any GOP action or anyone willing to challenge. R’s sure don’t seem willing to fight or battle. I’ve asked the Q, told the county chair not really keen on causing a stir………so, we get what we get because we accept stinking, lying, cheating Dems.
So what are we doing to stop this now? Much of the infor action is public, for instance death and voting records. Don’t wait for feckless party types or the courts to do what can be done legally by ourselves using public information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, November 15, 2020
PATRICK GANNON, PIO
email
Several NC Counties to Finalize Election Canvasses Early This Week
Raleigh, N.C. – About 10 county boards of elections in North Carolina are meeting early this week to finalize their 2020 election results, with a few counties correcting discrepancies in election results discovered during the post-election canvass process.
Results reported on election night are always unofficial. Canvass is the official process of determining the votes have been counted and tabulated correctly, resulting in the authentication of the official results.
Most county boards of elections certified their results late last week. However, a few are still working with State Board staff to ensure all votes are counted properly before they complete their canvass. Counties may delay canvass for a “reasonable time” if all aspects of the canvass process were not completed on Friday.
As counties continue their canvass processes, unofficial results will be updated accordingly on the State Board’s Election Results Dashboard.
“The canvass process exists to ensure votes are counted accurately,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “This is the process working as it is supposed to work. This election will not be certified until we are certain the results are accurate.”
Please see below for information about counties that will meet early this week to complete their canvasses.
Final County Canvasses
Craven County: To complete its canvass, the Craven County Board of Elections will meet at 2 p.m. Monday at the Board of Elections One-Stop/Training Room in the Craven County Government Administration Building, 406 Craven St., New Bern.
The ballot of one possible double voter may need to be removed from the results.
Duplin County: The Duplin County Board of Elections will convene at 10 a.m. Monday to conduct the preliminary consideration of a protest filed by Paul Newby: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/Requests/2020/2020%20General%20Protest%20Filings/Duplin%20County%20Newby.pdf
All ballots are in for Duplin County.
New Hanover County: The New Hanover County Board of Elections will meet at 1 p.m. Monday to conduct the preliminary consideration of a protest filed by Paul Newby: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/Requests/2020/2020%20General%20Protest%20Filings/New%20Hanover%20County%20Newby.pdf.
All ballots are in for New Hanover County.
Robeson County: The Robeson County Board of Elections will meet at 1:30 p.m. Monday to complete its canvass.
All ballots were tabulated for each one-stop site in Robeson County and the results tapes were printed. However, the results data for the Pembroke Fire Department one-stop early voting sites was inadvertently not uploaded to the state’s results database and therefore not reported with the rest of the one-stop early voting results on election night. During canvass reconciliation procedures, staff identified this oversight.
The county board will print a new results tape on Monday to verify that the results have not changed since Election Day and then add the results for 1,951 ballots to the overall one-stop early voting total.
Also, Robeson County still must add about 700 provisional ballots and about 30 absentee ballots to the final results on Monday.
Rockingham County: The Rockingham County Board of Elections will meet early this week to finish its canvass. Details are being finalized.
Sampson County: The Sampson County Board of Elections plans to meet at 4 p.m. Monday to count about five additional votes and complete its canvass.
Washington County: Washington County inadvertently duplicated its absentee by mail data in the election night reporting system, resulting in two records for every by-mail vote in the unofficial results reported on election night. This error was detected through required audits during the canvass process.
The Washington County Board of Elections will meet Monday to amend its canvass, and results will be updated accordingly on the Election Results Dashboard.
This type of reporting problem was possible only because Washington County uses an older model of tabulation equipment. Newer equipment, which most N.C. counties use, does not allow duplicate media to be processed.
Additionally, at least two counties – Durham and Stanly – will “re-canvass” Monday to make minor modifications to their canvasses.
Recounts
After all counties have completed their canvasses, any mandatory recounts would be conducted by county boards of elections. For statewide contests, the vote difference must be 10,000 votes or fewer for a candidate who is the runner-up to demand a recount. For non-statewide contests, the difference between the candidates must be 1 percent or less of the total votes cast in the contest.
Requests for recounts in most single-county contests are due by 5 p.m. Monday. Such requests in statewide and multicounty contests are due by noon Tuesday.
If a recount is demanded, the State Board of Elections office would issue a schedule, and the counties would conduct recounts individually during open meetings.
Counties would re-run every ballot through a tabulator and the results of the recount would be compared to the results of the original count. See the following rule for details on this process: 08 NCAC 09 .0107.
State Board Audits
Prior to state canvass scheduled for November 24, the State Board conducts various audits of election results, including the “Voter History Audit.” Here’s how that audit is conducted:
When a voter checks in to vote at an early voting site or an Election Day polling place, or submits and absentee by-mail ballot, the voter receives a voter history record for that election.
When ballots are run through tabulators, tabulation software provides election return data that identifies the number of ballots cast in that election.
The “Voter History Audit” compares the “voter history” number with the number of physical ballots cast in that election. These two numbers should generally match, but may be slightly off for valid reasons, such as if a voter checks in at a polling place and then decides not to vote.
This audit is designed to identify certain problems or fraud, such as ballot stuffing, erroneous manual entries, user error, or certain ballot coding issues.
The State Board conducts additional audits summarized here: https://www.ncsbe.gov/about-elections/election-security/post-election-procedures-and-audits
The State Board will not certify results unless evidence from the audits show the results are accurate.
State Canvass
The State Board of Elections will certify statewide results for all federal, statewide, multi-district and judicial contests at a public meeting held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24. Results in each contest are not considered official until certified by the State Board. After state canvass, the board of elections with jurisdiction over each contest will issue a certificate of election to the prevailing candidate.
A big part of the problem was a corrupt attorney general, Josh Stein, colluding with national Democrat attorneys to alter our election procedures so that they did not comply with state law through a sleazy backroom “consent order” negotiation. Since Stein was a candidate on that ballot, why is this not a professional conflict of interest for which he should be disbarred?