Ashley Bell has asked for a recount in the U.S. House 10th District race after trailing Pat Harrigan by 2,509 votes. Forsyth County gave Bell 68% of its vote.

Overview

Ashley Bell, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House 10th District, has asked for a recount. Bell trails Republican Pat Harrigan by 2,509 votes after Friday’s county canvasses.

Bell emailed the request to the N.C. State Board of Elections at 3:55 p.m. Friday. The State Board posted the request the same afternoon.

“I respectfully request a recount of the ballots cast for the 10th Congressional District, U.S. House race,” Bell wrote. The request puts the margin at 0.84% and cites the state recount law, G.S. 163-182.7.

The count after the canvass

County boards met Friday to make the Nov. 3 results official. The State Board’s results for the district now show:

Candidate Party Votes Share
Pat Harrigan Republican 146,590 49.6%
Ashley Bell Democrat 144,081 48.8%
Steven Feldman Libertarian 4,710 1.6%

That is 295,381 votes in all. Harrigan’s lead was 3,029 votes in the unofficial count on election night. It narrowed by 520 votes as counties added provisional and other eligible ballots.

Forsyth County voted heavily for Bell. In the Forsyth results, Bell had 73,168 votes, or 68.1%. Harrigan had 32,365 and Feldman 1,897. Our full Forsyth results cover every race on the county ballot.

How the recount works

State law lets the trailing candidate in a race below the statewide level ask for a recount when the gap is 1% or less of the votes cast. The State Board set out the process in a release Friday:

  • County boards of elections run the recount, and the counties pay for it.
  • Every ballot in the race goes back through a tabulator first. Two-person bipartisan teams do the work.
  • Ballots a machine rejects are counted by hand by four-person bipartisan teams.
  • Each county board must give at least 48 hours’ public notice before its recount starts. Recounts are open to the public.
  • Observers may not photograph or film a voted ballot.

The State Board said machine recounts should be finished by Nov. 23. It meets Nov. 24 to consider certifying the election.

After the machine recount, the trailing candidate has 24 hours to ask for a hand count of a random 3% sample of precincts and early voting sites. If that sample points to a different winner across the whole district, the State Board would order a full hand recount.

Rural Hall: a 3-vote gap

The canvass also narrowed the closest race on the Forsyth ballot. In the Rural Hall Town Council race for two seats, the official county results show:

  • Amanda Johnson-Anthony (Democrat): 588
  • Michael Woodcock (unaffiliated): 459
  • Mark Lane (Republican): 456

Woodcock’s lead over Lane for the second seat fell from 4 votes on election night to 3. That is about 0.2% of the 1,590 votes cast in the race, including write-ins. A request in a town race goes to the Forsyth County Board of Elections, not the State Board. We could not reach the county board’s website Friday evening to check whether one had been filed.

What it means for you

  • The 10th District result is not final. Harrigan leads after the canvass. The result becomes final only when the State Board certifies it, set for Nov. 24 at the earliest.
  • Rural Hall deadline: a recount request in the Town Council race is due to the county board in writing by 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16.
  • You can watch. Recounts are public. The Forsyth County Board of Elections, at 336-703-2800, must post notice at least 48 hours before its recount begins.