President Trump officially wins NC after state certifies election results

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Board of Elections certified nearly all of the state’s votes Tuesday after a meeting among officials.

The state’s Board of Elections certified the results just before noon in a 4-1 vote. That means the state’s 15 electoral votes will officially go to President Donald Trump.

The group officially certified statewide election results after county counts were already certified by county boards of election. The board also reported there were no COVID-19 cases linked to voting.

There are several races, the board could not certify because they’re too close, including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and several races in Wake County.

Key takeaways from the meeting:

• BOE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said there was “75.4% voter turnout in a pandemic, which is remarkable.” The 75% voter turnout surpassed the 69% participation seen in November 2016.
• The state Supreme Court chief justice race between Republican Paul Newby and Democrat Cheri Beasley is still going through a recount process.
• President Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 1.3 percentage points.
• Sen. Thom Tillis defeated Democrat Cal Cunningham by a wider margin.
• The state saw a record number of registered voters and mail-in votes.
• Over 5.5 million of the more than 7.3 million registered voters cast ballots in this year’s election.

In nearly every previous election, the candidates have already conceded or accepted victory by the time the NC Board of Elections certifies the results -- but in true 2020 fashion, this election has been anything but normal.

President Donald Trump has yet to concede and continues to cast doubt on the election’s legitimacy. His team has filed numerous lawsuits, claiming rampant election fraud, though election officials from across the country have said there has been no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Trump tweeted on Monday that he had given the go-ahead for his team to cooperate in the transition of leadership to President-Elect Joe Biden, but later doubled back to say that the election is, “the most corrupt election in American political history.” He also said he would “never concede to fake ballots.”

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