Trump supporters call for election integrity at State Board of Elections

A few dozen supporters of President Donald Trump were on the steps of the State Board of Elections office for about an hour on Thursday. They gathered for what organizers said was a stand for the integrity of the electoral process.

However, talk to any elections official in the state and they’ll tell you that process is being followed.

The protesters began chanting around 5 p.m. phrases like "four more years" and "stop the steal," insinuating that, somehow, the 2020 presidential election was being stolen. This protest came as the president insisted, without evidence, that there were major problems with voting and counting of ballots.

In North Carolina, voters legally have until Nov. 12 for their mailed absentee ballots to reach their county board of elections office, as long as it was postmarked on Election Day. Officials have said that, as long as that happens, their vote will be counted.

The deadline is Nov. 6 under state law, but the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to take up a challenge to the later deadline, which resulted from lawsuits that alleged the increase in absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic would lead to slower mail processing and could disenfranchise some voters who mailed their ballots by Election Day.

WRAL News reached out to Wake County Board of Elections member Gerry Cohen to get his take on the situation. He said that all votes have equal weight, whether the ballot was cast in person or by mail.