Polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5. Any voter in line at that time will be allowed to vote, so voting may continue hours after 7:30 at certain polling locations.
A new North Carolina law makes it illegal to count in-person early votes before polls close Tuesday. However, by-mail absentee ballots received before Election Day can be tabulated.
That means the first election results reported by counties to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBOE) will likely be by-mail absentee ballots. NCSBOE estimates there will be a 30-60 minute delay in getting the in-person early voting results submitted to the state.
At the end of the night, NCSBOE estimates 98 percent of all ballots cast will be reported publicly. The remaining ballots will then be tabulated over the following 10-day canvass period. That's the timeframe when the following type of ballots will be counted and added to the total:
- Absentee ballots received on Election Day.
- Provisional ballots cast early or on Election Day.
- Certain absentee ballots dropped off by voters in the 25 counties affected by Hurricane Helene.
- Military and overseas-citizen absentee ballots that arrive by mail at county board of elections offices from Election Day through 5 p.m. November 14.
Remember, all election results on or in the immediate days after Election Day are unofficial. In the days after the election, bipartisan election officials in all 100 counties will audit all of the results during the canvass period.
County boards will certify election results on November 15. The state board will certify the final results on November 26.
More details about how North Carolina counts votes and reports results.
