GREENSBORO, N.C. — County election officials all across the state of North Carolina wrapped up their canvassing.
The canvassing process is when election officials review votes to make sure they are legitimate before results are certified.
The Guilford County Board of Elections started the process Wednesday at 11 and continued it well into the evening.
Officials counted and reconciled provisional and absentee ballots leftover from Thursday night including mail-in or military and overseas ballots as well as cured ballots.
Thursday was the last they could accept mail-in ballots which were postmarked by Election Day, November 3.
The canvass lets officials ensure there are no issues that would call ballots into question, no voting irregularities, or fraudulent activity. Officials found some problematic ballots during the review process.
"We had a handful of voters that cast a ballot, perhaps by mail, and then went and voted on early voting day or voted on election day so we did have some of those," Charlie Collicutt, director of the Guilford County Board of Elections said. "The board did carefully consider those to see if they needed to be referred to the state board for investigation."
The board also dismissed a protest filed by Justice Paul Newby, the Republican candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice seat.
Newby ran against Democrat incumbent Justice Cheri Beasley whose lawyers were present at the hearing.
"It was generalized. He filed it in seven different counties, sort of alleging just general unhappiness with the way the Board of Elections extended the time for counting the absentee ballots," said Cheryl Andrews, attorney for Justice Cheri Beasley.
The dismissal of the protest means vote counts for that race will stand regardless of the candidate voted for.
While county canvassing ends, the State Board of Elections holds its canvass on November 24, after which election results would be formally certified.
