RALEIGH The N.C. Board of Elections completed its official canvass Friday and certified the results of the Nov. 8 election on Friday. The incoming numbers from a statewide recount of the state auditor’s race between incumbent Beth Wood and Republican challenger Chuck Stuber led Stuber to conceed the race to Wood on Friday. Wake County also had a recount in District 40 of the N.C. House, with Democrat Joe John beating incumbent Rep. Marilyn Avila by 384 votes. New Hanover County recounted a six-candidate county commissioner’s race, with incumbents Woody White and Jonathan Barfield, and Patricia Kusec winning seats.Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging the state’s handling of ballots from voters who register and vote on the same day will go to court. The Civitas Institute withdrew its injunction on counting one-stop ballots cast on Nov. 8 so the election results could be finalized, but its separate lawsuit asks the court to examine how those ballots are processed going forward. It claims that the process is unconstitutional because one-stop ballots are counted even if the voter’s address has not been verified, whereas voters who register ahead of time must be verified before voting.N.C.’s district maps were a topic of discussion in Washington D.C. as the nation’s top court heard the N.C. redistricting case. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether states have unlawfully considered race when drawing legislative districts. Republicans in Virginia and N.C. are accused of trying to dilute the clout of black voters. N.C. appealed a federal ruling that said U.S. House districts after the 2010 census took race too much into consideration.
