CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory knows what it's like to doubt an election.
"Because I've done it," McCrory said. "I've both won and lost election. I've had doubts before."
He's referring to his 2016 campaign against now-Governor Roy Cooper. He lost by just over 10,000 votes.
"But then as I examined the process, I began to trust the system, win or lose, and that's very, very important for our democratic process," said McCrory.
It's this regained confidence that led McCrory to work with RightCount.
The nonprofit says on its website that it is "dedicated to honoring America's Founding, upholding the Constitution and counting every vote." The organization operates in multiple battleground states. McCrory will chair the group's North Carolina efforts, joined by other local leaders like Matthew Ridenhour.
"There are certainly bad actors who vote when they shouldn't, or vote where they shouldn't, and things like that, but those are all very localized issues," Ridenhour said. "It's important for folks to know that we don't have widespread voter fraud. We don't have organizations across the state of North Carolina that are able to undermine our election process."
Ridenhour was the Mecklenburg County Commissioner during McCrory's race against Cooper. He's seen both tight races—and the changes made since then—firsthand.
"One, we have voter ID. Two, we have paper ballots that back up our electronic voting. And then three, our machines are not connected to the internet," Ridenhour said. "I think here in North Carolina, we've made some very important improvements since 2020 to how we conduct elections."
Spreading this information is extra important amongst conservatives in the state.
A WRAL News poll from September showed less than half of Republicans in the state have some or full confidence the votes will be counted accurately. That's compared to nearly 90% of Democrats.
"Regardless of the outcome of the election, we want them to support the results, even if the results don't go their way," McCrory said. "If we quit trusting it, it collapses."
He will appear in a series of ads in support of Right Count soon and potentially after the election as well.