North Carolina’s county canvass of results from the March primary is Friday.
Canvass is the official process to ensure votes have been counted and tabulated correctly, leading to certification of the election results.
Each county certifies results 10 days after Election Day at a canvass meeting that is open to the public.
Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Election Karen Brinson Bell said people can come and see how the process works. County canvass meetings are held at 11 a.m.
“The other county board of meetings that happen periodically might be to review and approve absentee ballots,” Brinson Bell explained.
"The public's encouraged to attend when we audit our random sample (of ballots) and then audit the tabulators…following every election.”
Before the canvass meeting, county election boards ensure that the sample hand-to-eye audit count and any discretionary or mandatory recounts have been completed.
County boards also confirm all eligible ballots were counted, including absentee and provisional ballots. Election officials also review any ballots that were unreadable at the precinct, caused by issues like torn ballots.
“The county election office staff is going through and we're looking at provisional ballots. That's when someone wasn't on the poll book and needed to cast a provisional ballot,” Brinson Bell said. “So we could research, was there an error in how their name was spelled, had it not been processed from the DMV when they registered at DMV. We’re also able to process military and overseas absentee ballots that may have come in that period of time. We also do a post-election audit to verify that our tabulators were working correctly.”
“In this entire 10-day period there's a lot going on at the county office level to take those election results that are unofficial on election night and get them to an official point through the certification meeting,” she said.
The state board will meet for its canvass meeting related to the March primary on March 26.
