NC recount: It could have been worse
Election challenges and protests have kept North Carolina from declaring a winner in the race for governor between Roy Cooper and Pat McCrory for more than a month, but it could be worse.
Posted — UpdatedThe short answer is not really, although it does appear to be unique in North Carolina history.
McCrory, a Republican, lost to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper by 10,293 votes out of 4.71 million cast in the race. That's a slim 0.2 percent margin, but slightly outside the state's current recount threshold.
Thanks to Steve Case, a senior reference librarian at the State Library, we know you have have to dig back to the 1800s to find an election that's comparable to the McCrory-Cooper showdown. For example, in 1872, Republican Tod R. Caldwell edged Democrat A.S. Merrimon 98,132 to 96,234. That was a 1,898-vote margin, but a full percentage point – five times the relative gap between McCrory and Cooper.
Despite such 19th-century close calls, Case adds in an email that he "found no evidence that any of them were subject to recount or failed to be certified in a timely manner."
Modern mischief
During the recount period, Emmer's election team challenged a number of ballots in an effort to have them thrown out of the count, similar to efforts by Republicans in North Carolina this year to challenge certain voters. In the Minnesota recount, many of the challenges were considered "frivolous."
Similar to North Carolina, the Washington case also involved claims of voter fraud. A judge found those claims had little, if any, merit.
Old-time trouble
The nation's high court has since reversed itself on the idea it had to stay out of political quagmires in a decades-long process that culminated in 2000's Bush v. Gore ruling. In his Medium post, Foley speculated that history might come into play if North Carolina's General Assembly was called upon to decide the race and voted to hand it to McCrory.
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