Monkey Business Report: STILL counting votes
The election was two weeks ago. We’ve still got counties that can’t supply official results. We’ve still got counties counting votes. We’ve still got important races hanging in limbo. Here’s where we stood on Friday:
A 5 p.m. Friday deadline passed and the North Carolina State Board of Elections, led by a Democratic majority and Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell, indicated counties that did not meet it are at no penalty.
Closely watched across the state is a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, where Republican Jefferson Griffin is trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs. Early Friday evening, with 13 counties still unofficial, Griffin led by 2,753 votes.
Wake County is the largest voting bloc still unofficial. Counties definitive to reconvene in meetings to finish on Monday are Chatham, Craven, Cumberland, Forsyth, Randolph and Yancey. Others at time of publication yet to finish are Brunswick, Durham, Halifax, Pasquotank, Sampson and Watauga.
Nineteen of 100 counties were unofficial at the bewitching hour of 5, according to the website of the State Board of Elections. […]
As of right now, the state board of elections reports that FIVE COUNTIES — Dare, Craven, Dupllin, Forsyth, and Northampton — still have unofficial vote results.
That’s right. We are two weeks past the big vote.
I’m old enough to remember when we voted in a day and counted the votes in ONE DAY. I can also remember when election issues were settled within 48 hours of Election Day.
Now, we have voter registration at the DMV. We have same-day, one-stop registration and voting. We have about a month’s worth of *early voting.* You can get an absentee vote for any reason whatsoever.
There are registrations and ballots in all kinds of nooks and crannies. Two weeks after the election provides an environment where the media stops paying attention and the campaign volunteers and voters return to their normal lives. Things move into the back rooms. And the environment — with fewer eyes watching — becomes ripe for mischief.
How long have Republicans held a veto-proof majority? How long have they had an opportunity to *fix* our screwed-up, drawn-out election process?
Fixing the election process has taken a back seat to sports betting, casinos, and legalizing weed. THAT stuff has a bunch of lobbyists who $pay$ pretty well.
Let’s not forget saving the political careers of Berger’s kid and his colleagues on the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners.
Some of *our folks* in Raleigh benefit sometimes from this drawn-out, screwed-up mess.
Why bother fixing the election process? In the current scenario, IF things go badly for the establishment, it can all be *fixed* in the extended aftermath that takes place behind closed doors.
Politicians rarely listen to us as-is. If they’re allowed to keep this election mess as-is, you can truly forget this democracy *thingie.*
You get what you ask for. You get what you vote for. You get what you tolerate.
Jefferson did, FINALLY, file an order this afternoon.
IF he was awaiting for the ncgop; well, we all know how that would turn out.
Interesting, SBOE employee was incensed Jefferson filed a suit..
BELL IS Coop’s darling and has been and will be. We CANNOT trust nor expect Bell to do anything but support dem voting and county irregularities. The New Hanover county atty told the county election board to FIND an atty to defend their illegal actions. He wanted NO PART in their unlawful handling of New Hanover voting and reporting.
WHY do we have votes not counted after 2 wks? We all know why? CLOSE races GET TURNED and WON by the same counties, election after election. And notoriously, the counties TEND to be BLUE. Are dems illiterate, dumb, incompetent? WHY can red counties FOLLOW election laws??
And we just gave SOBE, dems. Stein 4 MORE yrs of these shenanigans!
COS races DO matter. Judges are appointed, SBOE are controlled by the gov office. Yet, we flittered away our chances. Same for Lt Gov and AG; with Education dept to boot.
WE conservatives have to organize efficiently and promptly.
This race should never have been that close. Allison Riggs is a far left radical, a “social justice warrior” who was co-director of the far left “Southern Coalition for Social Justice”, but the NCGOP Judicial Victory Fund was asleep at the wheel and failed to let voters know that. This was pure political malpractice by NCGOP. We need new leadership at NCGOP. When you have ammunition like that, it needs to be used. Campaign rules prevented Griffin’s campaign from doing that, but there was no restriction on the NCGOP Judicial Campaign Fund from doing so.
Republican voters and candidates deserve better than what we have in NCGOP “leadership”.
To your point, we have NO leadership!
Grassroots across this state have to immobilize. Either use this platform to begin connecting and networking or some other platform, known to others.
The ncgop will NOT change for 2026 or 2028. We have essentially lost the most powerful COS for next 4Y.
I’m all for new NCGOP leadership. I was just on a County Chair call with the party. On almost every question asked, Jason deferred to Kyle Offerman or Phil Thomas (why is he back?) Jason has already checked out. Does anyone know when he officially joins the Trump administration?
Who should be our next chair? I’ve yet to hear a name that I can support.
Please keep posting and others apprised.
THIS is a great start. Being informed and communicating.
Thank you!!
PHIL THOMAS ignored all the crap on the voter rolls, all the instances of double voters in the 2020 general election, etc that were emailed to him in the spring of 2021.
Why?
It went against Whatley’s narrative that “NC did it right, we’re not like THOSE 6 swing states” bullshit narrative.
If the leadership and the NCGOP doesn’t change, we won’t have transparently and legally conducted elections – primary elections, the ones that really matter in most jurisdictions.
If the NCGOP leadership doesn’t change, the money-hungry and power-hungry establishment legislators like Berger will never be replaced with pro-liberty, pro-medical freedom, pro Constitutional carry, small government (govt: stay the hell out lives) Constitutional conservative Republicans.
That’s a fact.
Other Countries, some of which, we would consider 3rd World complete their elections in the
SAME day. It is absolutely absurd USA continues with these election result delays!!
Speaking of a changing the leadership of the NCGOP, can someone please explain WHY the ballots marked by each delegate aren’t simply transparently counted in front of each county’s delegation, but instead they “had a sheriff escort those ballots to a room where we had representatives from both slates watch them as they were counted.”
WHY are ballots taken behind closed doors to be counted?
WHY are the ballots moved at all?
WHY can’t delegates watch the vote tally? Explain that.
Guess what, Old Guard establishment asshats who will do anything to maintain power, YOU are not trusted.
We were there in 2023 for your voting app fiasco.
We saw what you did in 2024 to suppress the vote by holding an executive committee meeting mid-week in eastern NC – when you could have held that election on the Friday of convention in Greensboro when everyone would have been there.
Ballots used to be counted in each delegation and reported by roll call of the counties, which is more transparent and adds some excitement to the convention. Before this “secret ballot” stuff, votes were taken by show of hand in each county delegation. Since delegates are voting in a representative capacity, it is inappropriate for them to be voting by secret ballot anyway, because the county delegates who elected the state delegates as their representatives have a right to know how their representatives voted.
Amen. Let’s see who votes for which candidate, and count the hands (or standing delegates) in each county.
If the goal was to fracture the GOP by introducing his whiz bang Voting App, Whatley succeeded at reaching that goal.
The secret ballots that are centrally tallied tell me the leadership of the NCGOP doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about transparently conducted elections.
Not at their own party convention and not in the Primary or General Elections.
The people who think the battle is between R vs D don’t have the first clue who the “Republicans” in leadership really are in NC.
Imo, wolves in sheep’s clothing are worse than wolves who reveal themselves.