With nearly all the votes counted, President Donald Trump leads former Vice President Joe Biden in North Carolina by just under 75,000 votes in another razor-thin margin seen in a rival swing state.
While newsrooms have been quick to call other states for Democrats in the face of recounts and pending legal challenges filed by the Trump campaign, North Carolina remains one of the few that have remained to be called by any outlet. Some decisions desks have called Arizona and Pennsylvania for Biden, while Georgia and North Carolina appear offline.
The reason for North Carolina’s slow count comes as a consequence of the state election board overruling the legislature to accept absentee ballots through Nov. 12 if postmarked by election day on Nov. 3.
Unfortunately, that's just the law. The NC election board overruled the legislature and decreed ballots postmarked by election day would be accepted until November 12. Although clearly unconstitutional, the US Supreme Court declined to get involved. 2/3
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 7, 2020
Though state law bars late-arrival ballots coming more than three days after the election from being counted, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in the election board’s decision to accept ballots up until nine days later.
While small, Trump’s margin in North Carolina at this point remains far wider than Georgia, where Biden is up by just more than 12,000 votes.
Legacy outlets called the presidential race for Biden on Saturday after declaring the races in Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting the Democratic candidate over the 270 electoral vote threshold to clinch a first term in the White House. Real Clear Politics, however has not yet called Pennsylvania or the race.
As of this writing, Biden is on track to capture a win even more narrow than Trump’s triumphant victory in 2016. The former vice president is leading by about 50,000 votes across three tipping-point states. Trump won four years ago by just more than 77,000 votes across three different states against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
