This news item expired on Thursday, December 31, 2020 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
On Nov. 19, the Buncombe County Board of Elections and the Election Services Department will begin a recount in two races, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Seat 1 and Buncombe County Schools Owen District.
“This is a significant undertaking. To give perspective on what that means, one early voting location takes about eight hours to scan on high-speed scanners,” said Director of Election Services Corinne Duncan. “We have 16 early voting locations totaling approximately 106,000 ballots, plus roughly 35,000 absentee ballots, 20,000 Election Day ballots, and more than 250 provisionals. In order to accomplish recounting by the deadline of next Wednesday, we will have to implement an aggressive plan.”
The recount will be conducted beginning Thursday, Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m. at 50 Coxe Ave. Election Services staff anticipates running through the weekend. Recounts require Board of Elections supervision, a recount captain, and a duplication team. Six teams of two, in addition to two runners, will operate DS200s, and two teams of three will run two high-speed scanners. In order to complete the recount, it will require the support of all Election Services staff as well as temporary staff.
Per North Carolina Board of Elections procedure, observers are allowed. A maximum of six observers will be admitted at 50 Coxe Ave. The recount process will be live streamed at www.buncombecounty.org/vote to allow more observers to participate. In-person preference will be given to recount candidates. If the recount causes a swap in the apparent winners, a hand-eye count of a sample of precincts will be initiated.