North Carolina's vote-counting rules, timeline explained

Tim Walz campaigns with Bill Clinton in North Carolina

On the first day of early voting in North Carolina, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz campaigned with former President Bill Clinton in Durham, NC to encourage voters to support Kamala Harris.

North Carolina is a state to watch for the 2024 election, but unlike some other swing states, it won’t take days to know which presidential candidate won in the Tar Heel state.

Jason Roberts, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina, said nearly all (roughly 90%) of North Carolina’s ballots will be counted by midnight on Election Day Nov. 5. Other swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania have lengthier vote-counting procedures, which is why there may not be a clear winner on election night.

Here’s what to know about North Carolina’s vote-counting rules and the timeline for determining who won.

JD Vance attends town hall in North Carolina

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance hosted a town hall in Greensboro, North Carolina on Thursday. North Carolina is a battleground state and will play an important role in the November election.

When does North Carolina count absentee ballots?

North Carolina pre-processes their absentee ballots. Once a week from Oct. 1 through Election Day, each county’s Board of Elections meets to process all mailed-in ballots that the county has received thus far.

When the polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day Nov. 5, all the mail-in ballots will go into the system.

When is in-person early voting in North Carolina?

A man fills out a ballot at a voting booth on May 17, 2022 in Mt. Gilead, North Carolina. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

In-person early voting in North Carolina begins Thursday, Oct. 17 and ends at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2.

Early voting totals are also processed before Election Day and go into the system when the polls close Nov. 5.

Will North Carolina know who won on election night?

Roberts said by midnight on Election Day, some 90% of North Carolina’s votes will be counted. The only ones that won’t be counted on Nov. 5 are provisional ballots considered after the election (overseas voters, etc).

"So depending on how close things are, I would expect us to have a good idea on election night," Roberts said.

That’s in contrast to states like Pennsylvania, which doesn’t process mail-in ballots until the polls close on election night.

"It will take them a good while," Roberts said. "I cannot imagine doing that."

How will Hurricane Helene impact North Carolina’s election?

90+ still missing in North Carolina after Helene

As North Carolina continues to grapple with the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene, at least 92 people are still missing. Rep. Lindsey Prather (D), a North Carolina state lawmaker representing Buncombe County joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow to discuss the ongoing efforts.

With much of western North Carolina devastated by flooding and damage from Hurricane Helene, it’s still unclear how voting will take place in some of the impacted areas.

"A lot of mailboxes were washed away," Roberts explained. "We think it’s likely that a lot of polling places no longer exist or are inaccessible, so that part of the state is going to struggle."

On Oct. 7, the state’s election board changed the rules for voters in the 13 counties heavily affected by Helene, giving them more ways to receive and deliver absentee ballots and more flexibility in when and where they bring those ballots, according to NBC News.

How have North Carolina’s voters changed since 2020?

Roberts said North Carolina has added roughly 400,000 voters to its rolls since 2020, when Trump beat Biden by 70,000-plus votes. Adding nearly half-a-million new voters could certainly change the trajectory for the Tar Heel State, Roberts said.

"What's happening here is that more and more voters are registering as unaffiliated, especially younger voters … so we don't have much of a guess," Roberts explained. "Most people vote consistently from election to election, but they're registering as unaffiliated. They really don't know what they're going to do."

Will the North Carolina governor’s race help Democrats?

NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson sues CNN over report

North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson is suing CNN over a report that he made racial and sexual posts on a pornography website. LiveNOW's Austin Westfall discusses the latest with North Carolina-based freelance journalist Bryan Anderson.

North Carolina has voted for a Democrat for president just once in the last several election cycles (Barack Obama in 2008), but based on the money the Democratic Party is spending in North Carolina, they "certainly think it’s in play" this year, Roberts said.

It’s still unclear whether the scandals surrounding Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s controversial Republican candidate for governor, will help Democrats at the top of the ticket.

Robinson’s campaign has been in a tailspin since September, when CNN reported that he posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography website message board more than a decade ago.

Another media report claims Robinson, who was endorsed by Trump, was a regular at porn shops in Greensboro in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

Some in the GOP fear the allegations could threaten Trump’s standing in a state critical to winning the presidency in November.

"He is tanking, and the question is, does that affect other races up and down the ticket? And we just don't know," Roberts said.