North Carolina election news: Live updates on Oct. 29
We’re tracking the latest elections news in North Carolina as Nov. 3 nears. Check back for updates.
Supreme Court rules on mail-in ballot deadline
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday decided not to interfere with a settlement agreement that allowed the NC. State Board of Elections to collect mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 through Nov. 12.
On Wednesday the Supreme Court kept in place North Carolina’s Nov. 12 deadline to receive mail-in ballots in a different challenge. In a 5-3 decision, it declined to overturn the decision of a lower court that upheld the extension. The question before the court was whether the elections board had the right to change the deadline without action from the state legislature.
In the latest ruling, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger asked the court to suspend a settlement that in part dealt with mail-in ballot deadlines.
The previous deadline set by lawmakers was Nov. 6, but the N.C. State Board of Elections extended it amid concerns over Postal Service delays as more voters are expected to cast mail-in ballots this election due to the pandemic.
Ballots must still be postmarked by Nov. 3.
More than 3.6 million North Carolina voters have cast their ballot as of Wednesday morning. Tuesday was the final day to request a mail-in ballot, but early voting lasts through 3 p.m. Saturday.
Trump rally attendees test positive
Two people who attended a 15,000-person President Donald Trump rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport on Oct. 21 have tested positive for COVID-19.
The cases are not believed to be an indication the virus spread at the rally, health officials said Thursday, but attendees should monitor for symptoms and get tested if needed.
Officials are contact tracing for the two people who tested positive.
Campaign stops
President Donald Trump was set make another visit to the Tar Heel state Thursday, with a 6:30 p.m. rally at Fayetteville Regional Airport, his campaign announced Tuesday.
But multiple reports Thursday afternoon said he canceled the trip because of high winds.
Jill Biden, Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s wife, will visit Charlotte and Greensboro on Saturday. It will be her second visit to North Carolina, The Charlotte Observer reports.
Details about her visit weren’t available Thursday.
The former vice president and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, have each visited the state twice, and Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has made campaign stops North Carolina three times.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, visited Charlotte, where she called on supporters to vote in the final days of the election and touted her father’s record. The Wednesday trip was her eighth to North Carolina since Trump won the 2016 election.
Vice President Mike Pence made two stops in the state Tuesday. He visited Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro first and later traveled to Wilmington International Airport.
The vice president’s trip followed a COVID-19 outbreak among his staff. News broke late Saturday that five of his advisers, including his chief of staff Marc Short, had tested positive for the virus. Pence and his wife, Karen, have tested negative.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign released a statement about Pence’s visits.
“Vice President Pence and the Trump Administration have made their blatant disregard for the safety of North Carolinians abundantly clear,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s communication director, said in the statement. “This trip won’t distract voters from the Trump Administration’s egregious mishandling of the pandemic, which has sent North Carolina’s economy into a tailspin and cost over 4,100 lives in the state.”
Forest campaign event possibly linked to COVID-19 case
An attendee at a campaign rally in Burnsville earlier this month has tested positive for COVID-19, North Carolina health officials said Wednesday.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t specify which rally, but Lt. Gov. Dan Forest held an event in the town Oct. 15, the same day the health department says the event took place.
Andrew Dunn, a Forest campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to The News & Observer they wish the patient a “speedy recovery” but did not release contact tracing information.
“We have had no communication from DHHS on this and only learned of it from what they leaked to the media,” Dunn said. “Dr. Mandy Cohen has repeatedly stated that all tracing and tracking is confidential and pandemics are not political, but I guess that does not apply to us six days before an election.”
Forest has held campaign events during which photos show him breaking North Carolina’s coronavirus-related restrictions and few people wearing masks or social distancing.
Republican turnout catching up
Republicans have narrowed their voter turnout gap since polls opened in the state.
Prior to the polls opening Oct. 15, more than 500,000 North Carolina voters had cast mail-in ballots. A majority of those voters were registered Democrats, with registered Republicans accounting for about 18% of them.
But as of Wednesday, registered Republicans account for 31% of early voters, which is about equal to the portion of North Carolina’s electorate they make up.
Registered Democrats have cast 1.4 million votes, Republicans have cast 1.1 million and unaffiliated voters have cast 1.1 million as of Wednesday.
“Over the course of the in-person voting period, we’ve seen the proportions look more like the overall electorate,” Tomas Lopez, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, told The N&O. “So you certainly are seeing less of that kind of a partisan skew as time goes on.”
Where the polls stand
Trump/Biden: FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by 2.3 percentage points as of Thursday morning. A poll added Thursday showed the former vice president up by 7 points, a higher lead than most other polls conducted this month found. The Citizen Data poll of 1,000 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Tillis/Cunningham: The same poll shows Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham leading Republican U.S. Sen Thom Tillis by 6 points. An Ipsos poll of 647 likely voters added Tuesday showed him up 1 point at a confidence interval of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Cooper/Forest: A Gravis Marketing poll added Wednesday found Gov. Roy Cooper leading Republican challenger Dan Forest by 8 points among 614 likely voters at a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. An RMG Research poll of 800 likely voters added to FiveThirtyEight on Tuesday found Cooper leading by 12 points at a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 points.
What else you need to know
▪ Where do Trump, Biden stand in battleground states? What polls show 5 days out
▪ Fauci says COVID-19 mask mandate is needed. ‘We are on a very difficult trajectory’
▪ White House calls ‘Anonymous’ writer ‘coward,’ ‘disgruntled’ staffer as he goes public
▪ “Who the hell elected you?” Big Tech defends itself against charges of political bias
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 10:35 AM.
