LIVE: North Carolina Election Officials Hold Election Day Press Conferences

Well, good afternoon, and welcome to the 4 o'clock press conference here on Election Day midterm. I am Jason Tyson. I'm the Director of External Affairs here at the State Board. And in just a few minutes, we'll have remarks from Executive Director Sam Hayes. Joining us on stage is also Chief of Staff Brian Lavecki and Director of Elections Administration Parker Holland. Just a few rules. If you want to ask a question after remarks, please use one of the two microphones located on the side of the room for those who are here. And if you're joining us online, just make sure you unmute and use the raise your hand feature. And now I'd like to introduce Executive Director Sam Hayes who will deliver remarks. Good afternoon and thank you again for joining us. We're now well into election day in North Carolina and I'm pleased to report that voting has proceeded smoothly across the vast majority of our more than 2,600 polling sites statewide. We are encouraged by that participation and remain focused on ensuring that every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot today. At 2 p.m. today, the State Board of Elections convened in an emergency session to consider reports of disruptions or delays at a small number of polling places across North Carolina. Under North Carolina law, polling places must be open from 6.30 a.m. until 7.30 p.m. on Election Day. When a disruption or interruption in voting lasts longer than 15 minutes, the State Board has the authority to extend voting hours at the affected polling place. These extensions apply only to the specific polling place where the disruption occurred, not to an entire county. Extensions can result in a slight delay in the public reporting of election results. However, they do not prevent election officials from beginning the process of counting and tabulating ballots as permitted by law. No election results will be posted to the State Board website while voting remains underway at polling places operating under an extension. During this afternoon's board meeting, the board considered the following incidents. In Columbus County, at the Tabor City Courthouse polling place, a software issue slowed voting for approximately 20 minutes, although voting did not stop entirely. The board voted unanimously to extend voting at that precinct by 45 minutes until 8.15 p.m. Voters arriving after the normal 7.30 p.m. closing time will vote a provisional ballot. In Gates County, at North Sunbury substation 2 in Cora Peak, a facility access issue delayed voting for approximately 30 minutes. Three voters initially left the polling place, but all three subsequently returned and voted. The board took no action to extend voting hours there. In Lenore County at Holloway Recreation Center, a printer error caused a delay of approximately 45 minutes. Two voters left without voting and had not returned at the time of this report. The board voted unanimously to extend voting at that location by 30 minutes until 8 p.m. In Watauga County, at the Boone Blue Ridge Ballroom polling place, an individual who did not wish to wait in line disrupted voting for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. No voters left or were returned away as a result of the incident. The board took no action to extend voting hours. In Wilkes County, at the Boomer Fire Department, laptop issues caused a delay of approximately 20 minutes. There was no reported impact on voters and the board took no action. In Wilson County, at the PRWD Recreation Center in Wilson, the board considered a report of voting issues and voted unanimously to extend voting at that location by 15 minutes until 745 p.m. In Hertford County, a computer issue affected voting at two polling places during the first There's 15 minutes of the day. The board voted unanimously to extend voting at the Como Precinct by 25 minutes until 7.55 p.m. and at the Murfreesboro Precinct by 35 minutes until 8.05 this evening. We have received no other reports of significant disruptions to voting at this time. The board has adjourned its emergency meeting but remains on standby should additional issues require its attention. I want to emphasize that these types of isolated operational issues are not unusual during an election involving millions of voters and thousands of polling places. What matters is that we identify issues quickly, respond appropriately, and take the necessary steps to ensure that eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots. That is exactly why we train our elections workers, maintain contingency plans in all 100 counties, and coordinate closely with our state and local partners. For North Carolinians who have not yet voted, polls remain open until 7.30 p.m. this evening. If you are in line at your polling place by 7.30 p.m., you are entitled to vote. Our election workers are ready to assist you, and we encourage you to follow their instructions and exercise patience if you encounter a line. North Carolinians should have every confidence in the security and integrity of our election process. Our mission remains the same. We want every eligible voter to participate, every lawful vote to count, and every election to be conducted fairly, securely, and in accordance with the law. We will continue monitoring operations throughout the evening and provide additional updates as necessary. I wish to thank today's Spanish language interpreters Jackie And Erica Kugler, and our American Sign Language interpreters, Lee Williamson and David Payne. And with that, I'll be happy to take your questions at this time. If reporters in the room would please move to the microphones to ask their questions. Hi, Kyle Ingram with the News and Observer. I just wanted to ask if you could share which polling sites the DOJ election monitors were dispatched to, and if you'd heard any reports from them throughout the day. I have not heard any reports from the DOJ observers. They were dispatched to three counties. I believe it's Alamance, Guilford, and Wake. I'm sorry, Guilford. No, Guilford. I apologize. I had this earlier. So we've got Wake and Mecklenburg and Alamance. But I'm not sure of the specific polling sites, and no, we have not had communications with them. So no news is good news. Thanks. Right. And they can, of course, do that. We just, we have not been apprised of that. Ellen Bonner from NC Newsline. I'm wondering if you can give us an update on the uncurable ballots, how many there were, comparisons to the last midterm, and how many of those people who were mailed ballots later either voted by mail later or voted by another way? Okay, I have those numbers here for you. The spoiled ballots. Came in at a rate of about 1.9 percent in 2022. That was 2,992. In 2026 so far, we've had 2,466 spoiled ballots. That's a rate of 2.7. Again, that's slightly up from 1.9 percent in 2022 to 2.7 percent this year. But keep in mind, Ballots can be spoiled for any number of reasons, so we don't have that kind of detail, that level of detail for you. Do you know how many people whose ballots were spoiled later voted a valid absentee ballot or voted another way early, perhaps? Parker, we witnessed. Yeah, we unfortunately don't have those numbers, but as you pointed out, Len, spoil does not mean you're done. It's spoil and reissue. There will be an opportunity for the voter to either resubmit that absentee ballot or present the vote in person. And with that, we'll go to online questions. Yes, sir. We're not seeing any questions online at this time. Okay, great. Danny Danz, please go ahead and ask your question. Yes, I can now. Great. Hi, I'm Annie Vance from WCAB News. I'm wondering if you have any more detail about the incident in Boone and generally for public safety, what would be your public safety message to voters who may encounter certain disruptions? Certainly, as I understand it, this was a student who was running late for class and did not care to wait in the line with everyone else and disrupted the process. He was removed by campus police. By all accounts, everything happened and unfolded as it should have. Our judges, as I said this morning, have authority to enforce order at the polling sites, so I always recommend that if voters encounter difficulty, that they speak to the poll site judge, the chief judge there. They can also contact the county board, and they can contact the authorities if they are somehow prevented or interfered with in the process of voting. Parker, do you want to add anything to that? I think Executive Director Hayes summed it up very well. If we ever have any concerns with safety at the polling place, reach out to the Chief Judge. Again, you can always reach out to the County Board of Elections as well, and they will do whatever they can to address your issue. Do we have any other questions on the line? Yes, Mike Spector, please go ahead and ask your question. I was on mute. Thanks for doing that. I just wanted to confirm that with the extension, statewide results will be delayed. The reporting of statewide results, I should say, will be delayed by 45 minutes because that's the longest extension amongst the extensions you just reviewed with us. Is that correct? That is correct. That would be 8.15 p.m. this evening. And again, I want to reiterate that everyone that is in line to vote as of the time of the closing of polls, whether it's 7.30 or whether it has been extended, is entitled to vote. But everyone who votes after 7.30 p.m. will be casting a provisional ballot. Kenneth Lee, please unmute and ask your question. Hi, Sam. Just wanted to know if, or obviously there have been a few issues with a few different sites for printing and computer issues. Does this happen to be a statewide thing, or is this just more so an isolated incident? No, these are, from what we can tell, isolated incidents within the counties. There are various issues, sometimes the poll books, sometimes printers. But this happens every election cycle. There are always these minor bumps in the road. But, you know, we're a state of 100 counties. I think it's five, six counties that had these issues today. So the vast majority are doing just fine, proceeding accordingly. I just wanted to ask, I know voting is still going on, but do you have any early indication of how this year's election day turnout compares to 2022? Parker, do you want them? We are still waiting for our four o'clock counts from our county boards. I think that's something we can share once we have that. As far as an analysis, that might be a little tougher to do at this point, but we can at least get those four o'clock numbers. And I think we're winding down here unless there's any other questions in the room. Well, thank you so much for being here today, and just if you have any further questions, just write us, and we'll try to get to those as we can. Thank you again.