Elections Board OKs Machine Recount of Disputed Durham Ballots | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Democrats unable to convince GOP majority of lack of legal standing to conduct recount; McCrory trails in unofficial count by more than 10,000 votes

    In a 3-2 party-line vote, the State Board of Elections on Wednesday ordered a machine recount of more than 90,000 ballots that were reported late on election night. Durham County election officials blamed the delay on the inability of their voting machines to have enough memory to handle the volume of ballots cast.

    As of the end of business Wednesday, incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory trailed Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper by 10,257 votes out of more than 4.7 million ballots cast, with several counties still to report their final canvass results. When the vote is certified, McCrory's deficit must be 10,000 votes or fewer to demand a statewide recount.

    Republican board members accepted an offer by Thomas Stark, a Durham County resident and state Republican Party attorney, to withdraw his election protest if the ballots in question were run through machines an additional time and provisional ballots were counted separately. Initially, Stark had requested a "hand-to-eye" manual recount of all the ballots.

    At Wednesday's hearing, Stark cited no evidence suggesting the machines were in error but instead said irregularities resulting from the failure of Durham's voting machines to provide an immediate tally on election night were grounds to demand a recount.

    The disputed ballots were reported to the state at about 11:30 p.m. Nov. 8. The Durham County Board of Elections on Nov. 19 unanimously rejected Stark's protest of the election and demand for a manual recount, leading to the appeal to the state board.


Thomas Stark, a Durham County resident and general counsel for the North Carolina Republican Party, on Nov. 19 asked the Durham County Board of Elections to review more than 94,000 ballots that were not counted initially on election night. (CJ photo by Dan Way)
    Kevin Hamilton, the attorney representing the state Democratic Party and the Cooper campaign, wrote off Stark's protest as nothing more than sour grapes. "The law isn't, 'Gee, I'm a disappointed losing candidate in the election, I can ask for a recount just to see,'" Hamilton told the board.

    Republican board members saw the recount as a opportunity to dispatch with the protests and challenges. Board secretary Rhonda Amoroso said she saw no harm in conducting a recount, suggesting the Durham results showed a "taint" in the counting. With a machine recount, the protests would go away. James Baker, another Republican, agreed.

    Moreover, the McCrory campaign had made an informal offer to withdraw its request for a statewide recount if the disputed Durham County ballots were recounted - an offer that was repeated earlier Wednesday by NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse.

    At the hearing the board's Democratic members, Joshua Malcolm and Maja Kricker, said the recount was not authorized under state law and that the board's actions set a troubling precedent. They also said the late reporting was nothing unusual.

    The board's general counsel Josh Lawson cautioned board members that any motion authorizing a recount needed "findings of fact and conclusions of law" to avoid additional legal challenges.

    But Baker said the findings in Durham constituted an "irregularity" that cast doubt on the outcome of the election.

    In a press release, the McCrory campaign approved of the board's decision.

    "We are pleased that the State Board of Elections has recognized the voting irregularities in Durham County, and we will respect whatever the results show," said McCrory campaign manager Russell Peck. "We ask that this is done immediately."