North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 08 - ELECTIONS › Chapter 09 - CONDUCT OF VOTE RECOUNTS BY COUNTY BOARDS OF ELECTIONS › Section 09 .0106 - GENERAL GUIDELINES

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) Prior to each
			 recount under
			 G.S.
			 163-182.7, the county board of elections or
			 State Board shall inform the political parties and candidates of the recount
			 and describe to them the process of conducting recounts. A county board of
			 elections shall notice the recount at least 48 hours prior to the start of the
			 recount. The county board shall send notice by email to the county board's
			 regular notice list, county party chairs, and the candidates in the contest
			 subject to the recount.
(b) In the
			 case of tie votes, the winner shall be determined by lot only in the case set
			 out in G.S.
			 163-182.8(2). Where there
			 are 5,000 or fewer votes cast, there shall be only one determination by lot for
			 each tied election. There shall be no determination by lot until the time has
			 expired for the affected candidate(s) to request a recount, unless all of the
			 affected candidate(s) waive their right in writing to request a
			 recount.
(c) During the conduct of
			 recounts, ballots shall be counted in accordance with the principles in
			 G.S.
			 163-182.1(a).
(d) In conducting hand to eye recounts or
			 recounts of paper ballots, a bipartisan team of four shall be used: two
			 officials (one from each of the two parties in the State with the largest
			 number of registered voters) to relay the results of each ballot with one
			 person reading the ballot and the other official observing the ballot and the
			 person reading the results of the ballot, and two officials (one from each of
			 the two parties in the State with the largest number of registered voters) each
			 separately recording the tally of votes for each candidate on paper while
			 stating aloud after each choice is read on the fifth tally for a particular
			 candidate, the word "tally." If, after diligently seeking to fill the positions
			 with voters affiliated with each of the two parties in the State with the
			 largest number of registered voters, the county board still has an insufficient
			 number of officials for the recount, the county board by a majority vote of its
			 members, including at least one board member of each political party
			 represented on the board, may appoint to the bipartisan team an unaffiliated
			 voter or voter affiliated with one of the other political parties. In no
			 instance shall the county board appoint more than two members to a bipartisan
			 team who are unaffiliated or affiliated with one of the other political
			 parties. Bipartisan team members shall be registered voters in the State.
			 County board members shall not serve on the bipartisan team.
(e) The county board of elections shall
			 conduct recounts only as follows:
(1) the
			 recount is mandatory under
			 G.S.
			 163-182.7(b) or (c) or
			 G.S.
			 163-182.7A; or
(2) the recount is not mandatory but the
			 county board of elections or the State Board of Elections determines, using its
			 authority in
			 G.S.
			 163-182.7(a), that in order
			 to complete the canvass a recount is necessary.