NC’s Super Tuesday election results will take longer than usual

CHARLOTTE — It will take longer than usual to see North Carolina’s election results on Tuesday.

In previous years, county election boards were allowed to process in-person early voting results between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Election Day. This allowed for absentee and in-person early voting results to be posted close to 7:30 p.m., which is when the polls close.

But state lawmakers changed the law. Now, election boards can’t start processing in-person early voting results until after polls close on Election Day. The North Carolina State Board of Elections say this process will take an estimated 30 to 60 minutes, and possibly longer in some counties before unofficial early voting results can be posted publicly on the state’s website.

Unlike in-person early votes, absentee ballots can be processed before polls close. That means those results will be the first to appear publicly for any given county when the polls close.

This does not include mail-in ballots received by the election boards on Election Day. Under state law, ballots returned on Election Day are approved and added to the vote totals during the 10-day period after Election Day known as the “canvass.”

Absentee ballots have to be returned to the voter’s county board of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, which is another change in state law.

(WATCH BELOW: Panthers writer Darin Gantt works polls on Election Day)

Panthers writer Darin Gantt works polls on Election Day

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