>> Good morning, everyone.

Both here with us and those watching the livestream of this press conference.

I'm Karen Brinson-Bell executive director of the State Board of Elections.

I'm here with Paul Cox State board general counsel who helped to answer your questions in a few moments.

As you know, tomorrow is the big day Election Day 2024, it's the last chance for eligible registered voters to exercise their right to vote, do their civic duty and make their voice heard.

We just completed 17 days of in-person early voting with record turnout.

Already nearly 4 point 5 million voters have successfully cast ballots in this election or 57% of the registered voters.

And as we've said, voter turnout in the 25 western North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Helene continues to outpace turnout statewide.

In those 25 counties voter turnout is at 59%.

2 percentage points higher than turnout statewide.

And even with the tremendous turnout aside from some long lines in some locations.

Few very few voters had any issue casting their ballot.

So despite all of the naysayers, despite all false information and sensationalistic rhetoric out there about elections and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina.

That brings us to Election Day.

We expect more than a million voters will cast their ballots in North Carolina on Tuesday.

More than 2,650 polling places will be open across the state from 06:30AM, to 07:30PM.

Voters in line at 07:30PM.

We'll be able to cast their ballot.

Voters should go to their assigned polling place.

To find your polling place.

Use the voter search tool on the state board website ncsbe.gov And don't forget to bring your photo ID.

This morning, we sent out a press release titled 10 Tips for Election Day voters in North Carolina.

Police shared these tips with your audience is so we can have a smooth election day as well.

Also as a reminder, all voters can watch results come in on election night at the state board's election results dashboard it.

I want to switch gears for a moment and talk about those voters who have received an absentee ballot but have not yet returned.

It.

Absolutely positively.

Do not mail your ballot at this point.

It will not make it in time to be counted.

You have 2 options.

You can deliver it by hand to your county board of elections through 05:00PM today or by 07:30PM, tomorrow Election Day.

Absentee ballots cannot be dropped off at Election Day.

Voting sites.

You can discard your absentee ballot and vote in person at your Election Day.

Polling place.

Finally this morning, I want to appeal to all North Carolinians.

If you're participating in this election as a voter as a poll worker observer or campaigner.

>> Please treat others with dignity and respect.

We want to remind all North Carolinians that state and federal laws forbid intimidation or interference with voters.

It is also a crime to interfere with election officials carrying out their duties.

Penalties for violations include prison time, a fine or both.

The state board takes these incidents very seriously when they occur.

We will work with our law enforcement partners to respond.

Voters who are are asked or intimidated should notify an election official immediately.

We know the political climate in our country is tense.

But North Carolinians proved through out the early voting period, but they can put that aside and participate peacefully in this election process.

Let's continue that momentum on Election Day.

Let's make North Carolina a model for accessible safe, secure, and accurate elections.

And with that, we will take your questions.

We'll start with questions in the room.

Make sure to go to the mikes.

If you're going to ask a question from the room and then we'll go to those.

>> Online or by phone.

And if you're online or by phone, do need to press one.

>> Inward and ask your question.

>> Larger laura leslie with WRAL news.

Couple questions.

Real quick number one, western North Carolina, you mentioned the turnouts been high.

How many sites today have intense either early voting or precinct sites for Election Day.

>> We had no early voting site set up intense, but we do have 7 tents crossed for you.

Nancy County and one each in B******* Burke and Haywood County.

>> I think the best news is that there is some sort of roadway now, even if it's a temporary roadway in place to even those tent structures.

>> And then security you mentioned, you know, tense atmosphere.

Have you had specific security threats throughout this process or over this weekend?

We're also I guess part 2 is have you heard of an increased number of interactions over the weekend or have you heard threats about what might happen on Election Day?

>> Really, the the >> hostility and so forth has been at a very minimum.

>> And in in keeping.

>> With elections, especially presidential elections.

There's been a few verbal more than anything altercations between campaigners or individuals who have inappropriately approach voters in the buffer zone are as they approach to vote.

But all in all, it's been very calm.

We do.

We are monitoring because we know from our counterparts in other states that there have been and some artificial intelligence videos that have been put out.

There's been some of the temps for denial of service attacks on other state website and so not only are we monitoring for physical security, but we're also monitoring for cyber security as well.

>> As the state border County boards taking any extra measures for security for this election.

>> Since the last presidential election, we have worked with our federal partners to conduct what we call safe assessments.

Those are physical security assessments at all.

The county offices.

These then have a tailored approach to what works for their set up.

So there are some offices that have install panic buttons.

Others needed to reconfigure their entry space, too, create a protective of, you know, barrier between the workers and the public area.

So it just depends.

But yeah, so we have taken protective measures.

We've also been working closely with law enforcement.

Law enforcement cannot be stationed at polling places in North Carolina, but they can be on hand.

We've done training with them.

They've done training for us to make sure that we know you win there called and water election laws.

What are you know, other laws that they have to consider when they're helping to keep the peace or deal with the disruption.

>> Good morning, Michael per Chuck ABC, 11 couple of question with the timing of the votes being counted.

Can you walk us through what that process looks like when the boat can start being kind of wanting to speak those first votes to be uploaded to the Board of Elections website with those unofficial results.

Certainly.

>> So when the polls close and 07:30PM, we will be able to release absentee by mail ballot returns.

Those will have been tabulated by the county Board of elections on Election Day and then ready for a play when the polls close after that, there's been a change in state law to where we cannot release early voting results at that time from the in-person early voting period.

So those will be close.

Those those will be tabulated at the time the polls close in.

So we'll begin uploading those as we're uploading election day results.

I think, you know, everyone needs to be mindful that election.

No, no election results remote.

And so in those election day over.

2600 polling places.

They have to be driven in those results in those ballots to the county boards of elections and so if you think about if there's anyone in line at 07:30PM, until those those last voters have voted, those workers will not be able to bring in results are closed down their polling places.

So the bulk of results are going to be up loaded between 09:30PM, and 11:00PM, most likely given the drive time that it takes in many of our counties.

And it will just push them out as quickly as we can.

It's going to feel a lot like the state fair traffic when we had a concert going on at the same time, there's going to be some bottlenecks and everybody just needs to have patients.

But know that our objective is we will be, you know, provide them as quickly as we can.

But the real objective for us to be as accurate as we can most likely if all goes as planned, we will have the last of the results up.

Some common, the midnight hour tomorrow night to Wednesday morning he just took my next question.

Well, thank you.

Good news.

All.

>> And I just wanted to add that the election results that come in on election night, they cover.

We're estimating about 98% of the votes in the election.

There are ballots that are law requires that be counted during the canvas period.

So after Election Day in the absentee ballots to come in on Election Day.

So Karen was mentioning before about voters who have not yet put in the mail.

That is to bring it into the county Board of Elections office.

So if those ballots come in on the election day in the office that can't be counted that day, they have to be counted at a subsequent meeting during the campus period.

So we're gonna have some absentee ballots to get counted after Election Day, provisional ballots were going to have, you know, 10's of thousands of provisional ballots across the state that will need to be reviewed and researched by the county boards of elections.

And those will be counted during the canvas processes.

Well, so you have this 10 day period after Election Day where a small number relatively ballots still need to be counted.

But as of election night, as Karen said, when the last results come in midnight or hopefully soon thereafter, it will be roughly 98% of the votes cast.

A CNN thanks for doing this.

So I want to ask more about it.

>> Intimidation.

And so the first part of that question is, can you speak to whether there have actually been incidents already of intimidation at polling places that have cross the line to the point that state or local officials are actually going to take action on on those incidents.

>> Probably on that since some of that might be investigated >> without getting into specific cases that whenever we do receive a report of potential harassment, intimidation or interference with a voter as the executive director mentioned, we take very seriously and we take an incident on that.

And our investigators look into it.

The interview subjects are witnesses and potentially involve local law enforcement and we have we have a number of cases that we're looking into right now.

It's not a it's not widespread.

It's sort of on par with what we typically experience and a large election.

A general election.

So that's the process we use.

And you know, if the evidence is substantial added that there was a crime committed, then will refer that to a prosecutor and just to get into the weeds a little bit for a moment.

I'm thinking about tomorrow and I think on every election day we end up on social media or even emails to us.

>> Seeing people complain that they feel they were intimidated in some way.

And so I'm wondering if you can due to the extent you can a limited amount of time outline this sort of behavior.

That is allowed at polling places.

You know, I'm thinking of hearing people say things like, you know, campaign people associated with the campaign were playing music or they were this close to the polling place or do certain things.

What is allowed and what does cross the line?

Sure.

Yeah, that that could go over a lot of different things.

But we have a pretty detailed memo and pack and get that to you.

When we released in 2022.

>> That details what is OK and what is not OK in terms of conduct to the polls, but just to briefly describe voters should be able to enter the voting place, especially once they get to the 50 foot buffer zone free of any interference.

So once you get above or zone, the no one should be approaching the voters at all.

Even outside of the buffer zone, though.

You know what?

A voter parks, her car in the parking lot is approaching the voting site.

We want to make sure that no one is interfering with their ability to get into the voting site.

Now, that means that doesn't mean that a campaigner who wants to advocate for the candidate can approach the voter and say, hey, you know what, you support my candidate.

That's First Amendment activity.

That's expressive activity that's protected.

But where it would cross the line is if someone is instead of just advocating for their candidates, if someone is no question in the voter aggressively about are you qualified to vote and that sort of thing trying to trying to assume the mantle of an official that's questioning voter and whether they can go into the polls.

That's the sort of thing that can be intimidating another thing that would be against the law would be.

So when approaching a voter and say, hey, you can't vote here, actually, they've the vote vote, vote in play somewhere else providing false information about the voting process is a crime.

So if anyone does that, there would be committing a crime.

And if we get to that reported, we will investigate it, referred to prosecutors.

>> Megan Touma, CBS, 17 with the voter ID law.

In effect.

Are you seeing statewide a larger number of people needing to cast provisional ballots due to not having an ID with them and will that affect potential timing of any results?

We do have an uptick in provisional ballots because of the photo ID law.

But not anything, you know, unmanageable it.

And that is actually how the process works.

If someone present themselves to vote and they do not have an acceptable form of ID.

Then they are offered to the opportunity to bring that acceptable form of ID back to the county board of elections before the day before campus or 9 days after election on the 14th or they can.

And in complete an exception for and that exception for can list reasons they were unable to obtain an ID like lack of transportation, work or school conflict.

But it also can be because of natural disaster.

So we've had that use in western North Carolina and then it can be for religious objection for having your photograph taken.

So that is the process they complete with that form and and and give indication they complete a provisional ballot.

It goes back to the county board of elections and we will count those during Election Day.

There is a report that comes out the day after Election Day indicating the number of provisional ballots.

So we'll have a better idea of the day after how many need to be considered and they could still be a provisional ballot because of non photo ID reasons come one appears and they are not on the poll book.

We will research why and determine if they're eligible back eligible voters.

And can you talk at all?

I know we've talked about record early voting turnout.

Have you noticed any patterns that you can compare to previous years, especially when it comes to the unaffiliated voters and also young voters.

>> I don't have the data in front of me as I recall.

And you have the the Democrat and Republican Party and an affiliates were very high in their turnout.

And of course, there are more unaffiliated voters in North Carolina than either of the 2 political parties.

So it's not surprising that they would be sort of neck in neck intern of in terms of turnout.

We did in the latter part, see an uptick in younger voters turning out so you know it.

It'll be interesting to see who turns out to vote tomorrow.

Given where we are.

But I think one of things I would stress is that this election is not decided just because 57% of North Carolinians have already participated.

We saw 75% turnout in 2020.

So there's still a lot of voters.

You can come out and vote and know that your voice will be heard and that your vote will be counted.

>> I think you so much for taking the questions on David Land within city news.

So in terms of poll workers and training and hiring what how has this year then in terms of improvement over last year's with poll workers.

>> We are in terms of, you know, are.

We've had no issues recruiting poll workers and it's it's been pretty remarkable.

It takes about 25,000 individuals to make voting happened at these polling places and we were even concerned in western North Carolina that we would see some difficulty.

And so part of the resolution and legislation gave flexibility those counties to allow for people outside the county and yet they never had to to.

They have exercised that option.

They were able to find workers within their counties.

You know, I think whether it's because of Hurricane Helene or just their commitment to this as their civic duty.

People want to give back and they want to be involved and even though they know that the environment has changed and there's more hostility and so forth.

I think some people do it in spite of that that they know that it takes them to make this happen.

They know our processes and how they work.

They know that it's a bipartisan effort and they're committed to that of that.

They take in so we really we've we've done well in North Carolina, the political the political parties do have input on those workers and and to that gives the bipartisan approach that also gives us a pool of folks to recruit from and work with.

And so all in all, you know, you know, our upmost thanks goes out to those people.

Those 25,000 North Carolinians here willing to work these really long days.

It's it's essentially a volunteer job for the pay that they get.

But they are exceptional folks for doing this.

We're conserving their neighbors in communities.

>> And on Election Day, how frequent with the results dashboard be updated.

>> And it's an the results.

Dashboards going to be updated.

Just ongoing process.

And, you know, as we with that being dispersed across 100 counties.

We don't have set times that they do their uploads.

They do those as they come in and they're able to you just do a verification check against the tapes.

So it it will be just be ongoing and refreshing continuously.

Thank you.

Harris.

To rest the Jacobs Wnc.

>> She addressed poll observers, voters in the polling sites and any interactions that have already occurred.

Where could occur on Election Day.

But what about post-election unrest you know, the candidates questioning out comes the their partisan claims of fraud.

How much attention of you given that?

How can you prepare over?

How have you prepared for that?

>> You know, I've worked in elections for nearly 19 years now and post-election.

Threats, hostility, harassment were not something that we planned for for most of my career.

But it certainly has become the case because we've watched our colleagues in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, other parts even within Iran state where we were not considered as much of a battleground state in 2020 be subjected to death threats.

2 harassment and hostility a and protests and questions of our own personal integrity and so it it stands without reason that we have tried to learn from them.

Understand the relationships that we need to have with law enforcement.

Make sure that law enforcement is aware of the level of threat that we could face, particularly as a battleground state with so much attention on us and so I think what we've done is to prepare as best we can and consider it more of an insurance policy that we hope we never have to exercise.

But that comes into play the same protections that we've tried to put in place for any incidents that might happen while voting is taking place will be the things that will be our safeguards through the campus period and thereafter.

And so it is having panic buttons in a lot of our offices.

It's having, you know, secure entry into areas.

We will maintain our transparency.

Our courage people to come.

Watch those sample hand.

I counts that we do to verify that the tabulators have tabulated correctly come to the campus meeting and learn how we present the results to the board members and prove that these at the elections have been conducted accurately and fairly and securely and understand why we are able to certify these elections because I have no doubt that that's what's going to happen.

And then, you know, I would just, you know, make a plea to the candidates and elected officials.

Have a peaceful transition of power.

Except the results concede defeat when necessary.

And please recognize that is members of this community.

It is election professionals.

It has people.

These are people who have sworn OCE and this is a bipartisan effort to ensure that every eligible voter is able to count cast their ballot and that these results are tabulated and determined securely accurately and correctly.

Hi and Helen Coster from Raiders, thank you for your time.

>> You mentioned that you've seen an uptick in younger voters have you seen any patterns with regard to men, women and black voters in early voting so far.

>> As I recall the results, we do have all got results of the data.

We have this published daily on our state board website.

So if you have any issues with that, you can get with our communications director and we can provide that to you.

>> But we have seen women outpacing men in terms of turnout.

>> We I saw war a black voters turning out as we went through the 17 day period.

So their percentage of turnout was was ticking up.

And a lot of this data again is available on our daily sheets that we've been maintaining through the early voting period.

>> A quick follow-up.

You talked about some of your post election planning.

Can you talk about any staffing changes that you've implemented since 2020 in terms of the potential reallocation of resources to different issues and given given the heightened threat this year.

>> Actually, we do not even have the amount of personnel that we did in 2020.

We did not receive the appropriate positions or the allocation of some of the federal grant funds to have as many spilled support specialists as we did in 2020.

So we have we have stretched and we have made it work.

And I think that is just a testament to the dedication and the passion and commitment that particularly at the state Board of elections that the staff has to ensure that these elections go smoothly as possible.

And we so it has been really an effort to maintain the partnerships that we have in place with cyber security experts here in North Carolina through other agencies through the federal agencies and to 2, you know, as we have often been asked to do do more with less.

And that is what we have done.

And I think it's exceptional.

What we've been able to pull off in by the state Board of Elections and the counties many of them has faced the same struggles in not having adequate resources and personnel, but they've made it work.

Laura Leslie, one quick follow-up for Estes question that has to do with legal suits.

>> This might be a question for PA.

I don't know how many lawsuits have been filed already about this current election against the board of elections to do with them?

>> I don't know the exact number, but it's.

About the conduct of this current election.

That's probably around 10 >> and >> most of those are in different phases of litigation.

Nothing, nothing we have one case that has been briefed about overseas voters that are U.S. citizens that is being brief right now to the state Supreme Court.

That's the only case that I'm aware of that, you know, could conceivably have a decision.

>> Before or on Election Day, all the other cases are sort of in a holding pattern where, you know, the rules are set rules.

The road are set as it should be before Election Day.

And so you know what?

We'll see what the course decide in the coming weeks.

But that's sort of where we are with all the litigation.

>> How does that compare to an average year?

Election years?

It's a.

>> I would say that the volume this year compares maybe not quite as heavy as 2020.

2020.

We saw a lot more litigation over voting rules just because of the pandemic and a lot of groups being concerned that the regular voting rules, we're not going to be adequate to make sure that all voters will be able to cast their ballots.

So I don't think it's quite as high as it was back in 2020.

But as the executive director mentioned, we were about to arrest 8.

So we are experiencing some litigation because of that.

Our sister states like Pennsylvania and Georgia have seen more litigation and we have comparatively.

But but it's still a significant amount.

>> Looks like we can go to the phones or online for questions.

Remember to press one to have your question.

>> I first question online is from Ali Reid AccuWeather Network.

I would like to.

>> I there.

I hope you guys are doing well.

Thanks for doing this.

Press conference could question for you guys in regards to again a Hurricane, Helene and the impact that it's had on this election.

Can you guys just explain further what you guys have done following the hurricane to make sure and ensure that everyone that was going to vote in this election was able to be able to.

>> So we've taken a series of steps since Hurricane Helene >> did such devastation to western North Carolina.

Initially it was just to make sure that we could get our offices back up and running and able to serve the public.

That took about a week as we had 14 that were not online that very first Monday following the devastation.

It within that it certainly thereafter we were working with the Postal Service as well to make sure the mail service was continuing.

The that for voter registration mailings or for the absentee ballot request since that had already started.

And we could also receive mail for those purposes.

We worked with North Carolina emergency management to begin den a fine what it would take to be open for early voting on October the 17th and that included you obtaining power to the site's determining if they would need portable restrooms, things of that nature.

We worked with the counties with other officials and of the state board staff to help craft a resolution for the state board to adopt that gave flexibility to the 13 hardest hit counties that resolution became the basis for the legislation that was passed in the Disaster Relief Act that expanded it to 25 disaster area counties.

And that was signed into law by the governor.

This gave the county's flexibility in terms of relocating or changing the hours necessary for early voting to continue it.

That also allowed them flexibility with poll workers with polling places for Election Day and things of that nature.

And also the ability for multi partisan assistance teams to assist voters beyond what is designated it with care facilities.

So that's, you know, those were the other key steps.

And then it just became, you know, working the plan until we could ensure that we can have as many sites open as possible.

We had all we had early voting sites open in all 100 counties on the day that early voting started.

That included 76 of 80 planned sites in those.

25 Helene affected counties.

We had power, which is a testament to the power companies in the lineman for making sure that that was possible.

We then use so we had voting going on.

We turned our attention to Election Day and as things have continued to improve, we have been able to open up the vast majority of polling places.

We have been able to address voters in isolated areas and through the efforts of emergency management and dot and so many others, there is a way in to those isolated areas.

Now and we only are using 7 temporary tents that emergency management helped us to source and get set up securely and safely for 4 in Yancey County and then one each in B******* Bert and Haywood County.

So, you know, and then I think, you know that, you know, this has worked well.

You look at the turnout and the fact that Western North Carolina is outpacing the rest of the state thus far, it's just a testament to the dedication and the extraordinary efforts by the election officials by are partners at the state, local and federal levels to make sure that even when devastation struck.

But that did not stop voting.

Next question online.

>> Next question goes to Tom Franklin political.

Questions.

You mentioned the 7 tents.

How many voting site in the Western and the 25 affected counties.

I have been moved from there.

Previous are planned location >> I'll ask you to let our Comms department give you that specific data.

We've obviously had to make some different kinds of adjustments.

In some cases.

It's the same site is being used.

But the tent has been placed there in some situations.

It's that we actually did have to relocate.

But it may just be a facility that's across the street or just down the road.

So, you know, in some cases we haven't necessarily completely shut down the facilities.

We've just had to make adjustment.

So if you want to know some more specific data, let's let our comms department giving that information.

Next question question.

>> Next question is from Chris Chrome facing South Kristen.

>> The high the district from thank you.

A question about mail ballots.

The latest data I saw that there were some 200,000 mail-in ballots that had been requested.

It had been returned yet.

So just under half, that will obviously change today and tomorrow with those ballots come in and you get a very clear instructions that voters shouldn't mail the ballots at this stage.

They need to take them directly to election board offices.

And it's definitely been some concerns and talk about mail delays.

I just wanted to get your thoughts about that situation and specifically what advice you would offer to voters.

You might be worried about whether their ballot will arrive in time by 7.30, tomorrow and anything that media outlets, right, it can do to inform voters about their options.

Thank U.S.. >> So we do have a number of more requests that were made them.

Ballots have been returned.

But that's not uncommon.

There are a lot of folks who will make sure that they have that ballot in case that's the way that they would like to vote.

And they just see how their schedule or the weather or whatever might be their motivation to determines whether they go and vote in person either during early voting or on Election Day.

So we do anticipate it's not going to be a one for one on request to return for absentee ballots.

Voters can if they choose to vote in person instead of using that absentee by mail ballot that they've already received, they can discard it and go to their election day polling place.

If they have not mailed it back in and that the they do want to vote absentee by mail mail is not going to get delivered at this point.

That's it's too short a window.

And and and certainly the got its by the Postal Service is to allow for a week and we do not have a week at this point.

So they'd should deliver that to their county Board of Elections office today during business hours or by 07:30PM, the law did change in North Carolina.

And this is our largest election where it has been in effect that absentee by mail ballots must be returned to the county board of elections in their hands by 07:30PM, on election night.

So that is 07:30PM, tomorrow.

Tuesday, November.

The 5th in order for it to be counted.

There is no longer a grace period or posts park Ish, you know, circumstance in North Carolina any longer.

Now with Hurricane Lane voters who choose to vote by mail in the ER registered in one of those.

25 affected counties.

There is the option for them to take that to a county board of elections outside of their wrecked home registration.

We are logging those time stamping and 8 stamping those and they are being securely returned.

2, the home or issuing county board of elections.

And so they are the only voters who get that exception.

All other voters who want to return their absentee by mail ballot must do so in person to their county board of elections either today or tomorrow by 07:30PM, absentee ballots.

If the voters not able to return absentee ballots can be returned by near relative or legal guardian.

And we will lock that information when those ballots are turned in.

Next question.

>> It looks like the company.

I was like, I'm on.

>> No other questions.

Great.

Thank you all so much for helping us to get accurate information out to the voters in North Carolina.

We look forward to serving folks tomorrow on Election Day.

And remember that polls are open from 06:30AM, to 07:30PM.

And if you need to learn where you're voting site is or to look up your registration information or see your sample ballot.

That is available on ncsbe.gov through the voter search tool.

Thank you.