NORTH CAROLINA: Roy Cooper’s Lead Surpasses 10K Vote Threshold That Would Block Statewide Recount

The Associated Press reports:

Roy Cooper’s unofficial lead over North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has surpassed a key threshold that would block McCrory’s request for a statewide recount if its holds. The Democratic attorney general was ahead of McCrory by more than 10,250 votes as of Wednesday afternoon. His advantage has doubled since election night and grew Wednesday as Wake and Forsyth counties completed their canvass and other counties updated voting tabulations. Six counties haven’t finished their canvass.

McCrory’s request for a statewide recount would be granted if the margin is 10,000 votes or less after all 100 counties complete their work. North Carolina law does allow the state board to order recounts on its own. Cooper’s campaign cited the updated margin in once again calling on McCrory to concede. McCrory told The Associated Press on Wednesday in Greenville that he’s in what might be the state’s closest gubernatorial election ever. He says he’s “going to respect the process and respect the results” and expects others to do the same.

He says the process could include recounting more than 90,000 Durham County ballots. The State Board of Elections takes up later Wednesday a hand-recount requested by a Republican attorney. The Durham elections board already rejected that request, but McCrory’s campaign emailed supporters urging them to contact the board and say they want the recount.

The editorial board of the Charlotte Observer ripped into McCrory yesterday:

Pat McCrory, it appears, is going through the five stages of grief. First came denial, then anger. Right now he’s in the bargaining stage. That, thankfully, means that depression and finally acceptance should not be far behind.

Such a cycle may be normal, but what the governor has done since the Nov. 8 election is anything but. In a razor-close race, he has gone way beyond asking that every vote be counted before a winner is declared. He and his fellow scaremongers have disrespected democracy and honest election workers of both parties while slandering innocent North Carolina citizens by recklessly accusing them of felonies. In doing so, he has further tarnished his already-stained legacy and will be remembered always for the lack of grace he showed in what may be his final election.

His behavior is so incomprehensible – he fights in the face of virtually certain defeat – that it suggests there is an alternative goal. Like President-elect Donald Trump’s, McCrory’s creation of phantom election cheats tills the ground for future voter suppression efforts. Flimsy though the allegations are, they are all legislative leaders would need in their efforts to justify politically motivated restrictions.