NC officials unanimously certify midterm election results, report 'tremendous' turnout

Voter turnout for the November election was similar to 2018, the most recent non-presidential election year. Nearly 3.8 million of the more than 7.4 million North Carolinians registered to vote cast a ballot, or 51% of the voting eligible population. The rate of participation was slightly less than the 53% turnout in 2018.

“While this is not a record, it is still a tremendous turnout for a midterm election,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state elections board.

Like all general elections since 2016, most of the ballots cast this year came from early, in-person voting. More than 2 million people voted during the one-stop early voting period from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5. Nearly 1.6 million ballots were cast on Election Day.

The remaining votes were cast through mail-in and provisional ballots.

The state received nearly twice as many mail-in ballots and requests for mail-in ballots compared to 2018. The more than 187,600 absentee-by-mail ballots cast this year was almost twice as much as the 97,500 ballots received in 2018.

Bell attributed the increase to more North Carolinians becoming aware of the voting method in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 1 million North Carolinians voted by mail in 2020, surpassing the nearly 900,000 people who had voted in person on Election Day.

Despite the sizable dropoff in mail-in voting from 2020, the increased awareness of the voting method has caused some division.

Republican Tommy Tucker, an elections board member and former state senator, said on Tuesday that he’d like the state to perform signature verification on mail-in ballots — an action critics worry could create unnecessary confusion because handwriting can change over time and may not always be legible.

“If you want to promote integrity in our elections, [we should use] every tool that we have that’s available,” Tucker said.

NC absentee ballot signatures won't face new scrutiny, elections board rules

North Carolinians who voted by mail this year were required to sign a certificate attesting to their eligibility and have their absentee ballot envelope signed by two witnesses or a notary public.

At least 16 intimidation, interference, incidents reported at NC polls

A rigorous review of the results by all counties and additional layers of review in select locations in the days and weeks after the election found no variance in results that would have affected the outcomes of any of the certified races.

No statewide race came within the 0.5% threshold needed for a recount, nor did any of the 14 U.S. House races or 170 General Assembly contests fall within the 1% margin needed for candidates to request a recount.

The state board, which includes three Democrats and two Republicans, all agreed to certify the results.

“The ballots have been properly counted for and the results are within the thresholds of what we would expect for these outcomes,” said Stacy Eggers IV, a Republican member of the state elections board. “I do commend our county staff and our county directors.”