100 County Recount Confirms Newby Next Chief Justice | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Raleigh, NC     Late last night, the Forsyth County Board of Elections became the final county to complete its recount in the race for Chief Justice. The recount confirmed the election night and county canvas results with Paul Newby as the Chief Justice Elect. Out of more than 5.4 million votes cast, the statewide recount only changed the margin by 5 votes. Moments after the final recount results were made public, the Beasley campaign announced they would not concede and requested another recount much to the chagrin of weary county election boards.

    "We are very disappointed that Cheri Beasley has requested another recount in her quest to overturn the election of Paul Newby as our next Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court," said North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley. "The statewide recount which was completed last night confirmed Justice Newby's win and Beasley has failed to pick up a single vote in any of the 92 counties where she has filed a protest. Rather than ask for a second recount, which will merely delay the certification of this race, Beasley should gracefully concede."

    Beasley's first statewide recount required thousands of hours of volunteer and local government employees, many of which worked overtime during a holiday week to timely complete the recount process. In addition to forcing a statewide recount, the Beasley legal team has challenged the work of 92 county election boards (all controlled by Democrat majorities) on the basis of a largely discredited and highly-partisan affidavit.

    Of the 92 Beasley county protests filed, nearly 70 have already been dismissed by the Democrat controlled county boards. Not a single county has upheld the Beasley protests in an evidentiary hearing. According to county boards and publicly available data, a large percentage of the Democrat votes the Beasley campaign is attempting to revive through protests were counted during the county canvas process and the others were lawfully denied.

    To recap, the statewide machine recount only served to reduce the Newby winning margin by 5 leaving Beasley trailing by more than 400 votes. The protests have fallen flat as the data submitted by the Beasley legal team is heavily flawed on its face and not a single vote has been added to the Beasley total from the protests efforts. So this begs the question why would the Beasley campaign continue this charade and increase the burden on cash strapped county election boards?

    "The counties suffer, the North Carolina judicial system is left in limbo and democracy languishes while the Beasley legal team plays games with the election process," said NCGOP Press Secretary Tim Wigginton. "Everyone knows that the hand eye recount won't change the outcome of this race anymore than the statewide machine recount did. Although counties across North Carolina will incur additional costs while they are managing budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, this is clearly a boon to Beasley's legal team - who will be able to continue billing the Chief Justice and the Democrat Party for at least another round of legal maneuvering. It is time for the adults in the Beasley campaign and state Democrat party to step in and stop this boondoggle. It should start with Governor Cooper as he appointed Beasley to the position of chief justice. Cooper should privately and publicly encourage Beasley to do the right thing and concede the election."

• Contact: Tim Wigginton
•     communications@ncgop.org