Voter canvass finally complete
By From staff reports
Published in News on November 23, 2016 10:06 AM
Wayne County Elections Director Dane Beavers said the county's canvass is complete and there were no changes or surprises.
However, there is still a chance that the election is not over.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has called for a statewide recount in his tightly-contested race with Democrat Roy Cooper, who currently holds about a 7,000-vote lead.
And the conservative Civitas Institute has filed a federal lawsuit seeking a restraining order against including same-day registration in the Nov. 8 general election pending further investigation.
The lawsuit wants the addresses of all same-day registration voters to be verified first.
The same-day registration process is covered in state elections law, Beavers said.
"The law basically says that you show up, and you present an identifying document that has your name and address of where you live," he said. "We use that for your same-day registration information. It goes into our system. Immediately afterward we mail a letter to that address. If the letter is returned undeliverable, then we send another one.
"If the second one is returned undeliverable, then your registration is canceled. If the letter is not returned, we assume it is delivered and registration is active. That is pretty much it in a nutshell."
It is an ongoing process and started on the first day of one-stop early voting on Oct. 20, Beavers said.
It can go on for weeks, depending on how quickly the mail goes out and comes back, he said.
"I don't have any stats on where we are at in that process," Beavers said. "But typically we don't really track numbers. It's just an individual situation. Like I said if your letter comes back twice as undeliverable, your registration is canceled. Otherwise you become an active registered voter in Wayne County.
"We don't have any path to removing votes due to same-day registration. That is not part of the process."
Beavers said that there is some logic to statements about delaying the final tally until all of the same-day registration addresses are checked.
"The problem is that it should have been written into the law," Beavers said. "You can't come out after the election is over and change the election law. That is where the issue comes.
"This election needs to be put to bed. If you want to change the way same-day registration is conducted, then you need to go to your legislature for that. So with all of the other delays I am sure that one will add to it. Right now the big question is recount, and a recount cannot happen until after the last county certifies its election results."
Also, the state board of elections cannot certify the state results until all 100 counties have canvassed their final results, he said.
"So every time it is just pushing the date back further and further, and the longer you leave election results in limbo, the more likely you are to create more doubt in the election itself," Beavers said.
There is no way to redo a presidential election when the president has already been declared, he said.
"There is no real good answer to this," he said.
Beavers said he would hate to speculate on the gubernatorial election since that was out of his league.
"What I have heard are rumors forcing a legislative nuclear option where the legislators select the governor," he said. "There is apparently some avenue for that. But I am not real familiar with it."
As for Wayne County, it had a very successful election, he said.
"It went well," Beavers said. "I am well pleased overall with how things went here in Wayne County. We are prepared for whatever comes our way whether it be recount or getting ready for the next one (election).
"Our numbers are pretty much online like they were on election day. It is all out there on our website. They have just now finished their hearing and the best I could tell was they are going to give us some directions to move forward with canvass unless you had a challenge to a technical vote counting issue which we don't."
The canvass results we have reported and all of the paperwork has been done, he said.
"Everything has been signed by the (Wayne County) elections board, and until we get further direction to do something else, this election is done, and we are moving forward," Beavers said.