North Carolina Fifth Congressional District Challenger Hubbard Leads Incumbent Foxx by 337 Votes of Nearly 287,000 Cast, a 0.12 Percent Margin, as the Machine and Sample Hand-Eye Recount Steps Are Explained on November 13
County boards of election in North Carolina conducted canvasses on the morning of November 13, which will lead to the State Board of Elections certifying most election results as official, but some races could be heading to recounts, including the Fifth Congressional District race in which Democratic challenger Chuck Hubbard leads incumbent Republican Virginia Foxx by a mere 337 votes out of nearly 287,000 ballots cast.
Under state law, a losing candidate may demand a recount if the gap is not more than one percent for nonstatewide races, the gap in the Hubbard and Foxx race is 0.12 percent, well within the cutoff, and the Foxx campaign must file the demand with the State Board within two business days of the canvass.
The State Board will notify the county boards, which must conduct machine retabulations of all ballots within three days of receiving the notice, the recount is public with at least 48 hours public notice before it begins, each tabulator is attended by two-person bipartisan teams or by trained staff supervised by bipartisan teams, and the county board has five days from the start of the recount to complete it, with the retabulation results becoming the new official count.
Whichever candidate loses the machine recount may demand a second recount on a hand-to-eye basis in a sample of precincts within 24 hours of the completion of that recount, with each county hand-counting all ballots cast in 3 percent of in-person voting sites in each county in the jurisdiction, rounded up.
If the sample recount suggests the result could be reversed if extrapolated across the entire tabulation, the counties in the district must conduct a full hand-to-eye recount of all ballots, and if there is a discrepancy between the machine recount and the full hand-to-eye recount, the hand-to-eye results are considered official, except under limited circumstances such as ballots being lost or destroyed during the hand-to-eye recount.
Source: John Locke Foundation
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：北卡罗来纳州首府罗利市天际线（资料图），国会第5选区重计程序由州选举委员会说明。James Willamor 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Skyline of Raleigh, the North Carolina capital (file photo); the Congressional District 5 recount process was explained by the State Board of Elections. By James Willamor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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