REPLAY: North Carolina Election Officials Hold Election Day Press Conference

Good morning and welcome to the 11 a.m. press conference on election day. My name is Jason Tyson. I'm the director of external affairs here at the state board. I just want to introduce those of us who are on stage. Joining us today are Brian Levecky, our chief of staff, and Parker Holland, the director of elections administrations, and of course, the executive director, Sam Hayes. In just a minute, Director Hayes will deliver remarks. Just a few pointers. After his remarks, we're going to take questions from the room. We have microphones here and there. If you'll step to the mic to ask your question, state your name and your outlet, and then we'll take questions from online. So without further ado, here is Executive Director Sam Hayes. Good morning. Thank you for all being here. Today is Election Day in North Carolina. I'm pleased to report that our state is prepared. Our county election officials are ready and voting is underway across all 100 counties. We've spent months preparing for this day, working closely with our county boards of elections, training election workers, strengthening our procedures, and ensuring that every county has the resources and support necessary to conduct a safe, secure, and orderly election. I want to begin by thanking the thousands of election workers across North Carolina who are serving Let's ring the voters today. These individuals are well-trained, dedicated professionals who take their responsibilities seriously. They are the backbone of our election system, and we are grateful for their service. We are coming off a very successful 17-day early voting period, with few interruptions or significant issues reported statewide. And perhaps the most encouraging news is the tremendous participation we've seen from North Carolina voters. More than 2.7 million North Carolinians cast their ballots during early voting, setting a record for a midterm general election in our state. Let me put those numbers into perspective. As of our last reporting, 7.9 million, approximately 7.9 million registered voters in North Carolina have voted. 2.7 million ballots cast during the 17-day early voting period. A little short of 94,000 absentee-by-mail ballots cast and around 2.8 million total ballots cast before Election Day. That means nearly 35.8% of all registered voters have already cast their ballots before the polls opened this morning. By comparison, total voter turnout in the 2022 midterm general election was approximately 51%. We're pleased to see this level of participation, and we hope that momentum continues throughout Election Day. As we begin Election Day, we're monitoring reported minor delays in the following counties – Hertford, Gates, Wilson, and Lenoir counties. These are due to various technical issues. The State Board will be meeting today at 2 p.m. to consider extensions in these counties. During every election, minor disruptions arise, such as power outages, tabulator issues, printer jams, longer lines than previously anticipated. These are not indications of malicious activity, and the processes are in place to respond to each scenario. For example, if a ballot tabulator malfunctions, trained officials can be brought in to repair it, or the machine can be replaced by a certified and tested backup. Voted ballots are kept securely in the meantime. It is not unusual for the State Board to extend voting hours beyond 7.30 p.m. if a disruption of the polling place causes a stoppage in voting. Our staff remains in close communication with election officials in all 100 counties and we are monitoring operations throughout the state in real time. We've worked with our county partners to anticipate a wide range of scenarios from equipment issues and power outages to weather-related disruptions and other unexpected circumstances. Every county has contingency plans in place and our teams stand ready to respond quickly should any issues arise. We recognize that issues can occur during any election, particularly one of this size. What matters is that we have the training, systems, personnel, and procedures in place to address them promptly and keep the voting process moving. I also want to address election security and the presence of federal election monitors in North Carolina. We understand that federal election monitors will be present in Alamance, Wake, and Mecklenburg counties today. Our reports indicate that two monitors have been assigned to each of those counties. We also understand that a small number of U.S. House election observers will be present in congressional districts 1 and 11. Let me be clear. Election observation is a normal and established part of the election process. The presence of these monitors should not be interpreted as an indication that there are problems with North Carolina's elections or that they are being improperly influenced. We will continue working cooperatively with our federal, state, and local partners consistent with applicable law to ensure the election process, the elections process, is conducted properly. North Carolina has established procedures to protect the security and integrity of our elections and voters should have confidence in those safeguards. For those North Carolinians who have not yet voted, I encourage you to make a plan to cast your ballot today. Our election workers are trained, our counties are prepared, and our voting systems have safeguards in place to protect the integrity of the process. We want every eligible voter to have the opportunity to participate, and we want every lawful vote to count. Our commitment is straightforward. To administer an election that is safe, secure, accurate, and accessible to every eligible North Carolina voter. We will continue monitoring conditions across the state throughout the day and we'll provide updates as necessary. Thank you, and with that, I will be happy to take your questions. For those reporters in the room, I just ask that you step to the mics. 17. For the four counties where you mentioned there were issues this morning, do you know if at those locations if those issues have been fixed? It's my understanding that those issues have been resolved. At this time, I'll call on my Deputy Director for Elections Administration, Parker Holland, to address that question in case there's any information that I did not receive before walking in. Good morning. Yes, those issues have been resolved. It was varying items such as a printer jam when we deploy our electronic poll books. They're deployed with a printer to print what we call the authorization to vote form. You'll hear us refer to that as an ATV. So those items were just really what the delays were there. There was an issue with a poll book as well. But those issues have since been resolved. We also have our secondary procedures that we go to in the event this happens, such as pulling out our manual poll books to make sure we're serving the voters. Here at WREL, if a voter does run into any issues at polling places, what would your message be to them to avoid any confusion and make sure that they are able to cast a ballot? My message to them would be to check with the poll workers or the precinct judge there. They are authorized to maintain order at the polling site, and they can assist any voter who is having difficulty. I don't know, Parker, if you would like to add anything to that. Of course. I would also say if they're having difficulty, be patient. They can always reach out to the County Board of Elections as well and discuss their issues because that's what they're there to do. They're there to help, but the chief judge is in control of that polling site. They would be the first person to speak to. If they have any other concerns, they can address it with the County Board of Elections. Hi, good morning. I'm Claudia Rivera Cotto with Enlace Latino NC. My question is regarding the DOG monitors. I was wondering if there were any reasoning as to why the three selected counties, and second, if you know in which exact polling locations will they be? Do we know the exact polling? I don't believe we know the exact polling locations. These were the same three counties that DOJ sent the monitors to, I believe, in the 2024 general election. I don't know any reasoning beyond that. But again, this is just a part of the normal course, a federal observer. So it is nothing that voters should be concerned about. They're only there to observe and they will Not be inserting themselves into the process. So, again, I would not be concerned about that at all. Anything to add, Parker? Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Elena Athens from ABC 11. I think you said there were technical issues in four counties. Could you tell me the totality of polling sites where there have been some of those technical issues in combining all four of those counties? I understand there's two in Wilson County. If you could speak to what's happening. I think we're looking at as many as maybe four additional counties that had some issues, but did not cause a delay in the opening of the polls. So that's why they were not listed among those that I mentioned earlier. So I understand. Are you saying that there's only four polling sites that there were problems? That's what we understand right now, that the problems that caused a delay in the opening or a stoppage in voting, there were some other issues, technical issues that some other counties had, did not cause a delay in the opening of the polls this morning at 6.30 a.m. Okay, thank you. Good morning, Ren Larson with the Assembly. We reported last night that there will be congressional monitors, congressional observers, in addition to the DOJ monitors in CD11 and CD1. Could you speak to which counties you know, if you do know the Congressional monitors will be visiting this morning, or throughout the day, and then also speak a bit more to how Congressional observers have been at polling places in the past. Were we alerted to the specific counties? Buncombe would be one of them there in the 11th, do we know about the 1st? Right. I mean, these congressional observers have broad authority, broad jurisdiction, and they can go to any. They did alert us, both the minority and the minority, from the House. We also have Senate observers from the minority in those or throughout the state as well, and they presented us with their credential letters. We have reached out to the counties where we did know that they were. Going to be coming, but beyond that I don't have the additional information and then do you know more about the? Counties they visited in the past do we Parker do you want to address that? I believe they were in Durham previously, but this is, again, not out of the ordinary that we've had this happen before, and we've been in communication with the counties that could be seeing these observers. We communicated with them via email and said this is where they potentially could be, just to make them aware. Thank you. And now we'll go to questions online. Nick DeLaCanel, you have to unmute your mic and please ask your question. Nick, we can't hear you if you're speaking. Katie Clark, please go ahead and ask your question. Nick, if you could please figure out your situation on your end. Thank you. I just have a quick question. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can. I just wanted to put you down, go over the counties again that were experiencing the minor delays that were gone over at the beginning. The four counties that I listed were Hertford, Gates, Wilson, and Lenore. Okay, thank you. Sarah Michaels, you can please go ahead and unmute your mic and ask your question. Hi, thanks for having us today. I was wondering if there are any close races tonight. Can you give us a reminder of what happens next in the races and when we can hope to see an official result? Parker, do you want to speak to that? Thank you. So if there are any close races tonight, we'll report everything out. And if there is a delay in reporting because of the extension of polling places, that will be statewide. So I did just want to share that information. But I'll also say that, you know, Canvass is when the results become official. That's 10 days after the election. The county boards will meet during this time to. review any provisional ballots that have been cast and to make their determination on those but again you know results are not official until canvass. Again, just to reiterate, the State Board will be meeting later today to discuss the issues that these four counties had and the delayed voting. And it could be that it necessitates extending voting hours. I will leave that to the Board. That is their purview. But it could also delay reporting across the state as well. So stay tuned for that. Do we have any additional? That was all the questions from our line. Thank you. That's it. Well, thank you, everyone. Thank you. And we will have another press conference today at 4 p.m. So stick around if you'd like to. We'll update the numbers there. Thank you very much.