Republican Control of North Carolina Senate Comes Down to One Tight Race Determined by Provisional Ballots

The margin is tightening in a nail-biter North Carolina Senate race that will decide whether that chamber succumbs to the Democratic blue wave that swept across the U.S. in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Democrats won enough state House seats Tuesday to flip control of that chamber after 15 years of Republican control, while the balance of the Senate is “still an open question,” Raleigh’s WRAL News reported Friday.

The race in question is for the state’s 24th senate district between influential Republican Sen. Danny Britt and Democratic challenger Catina Hamm. The seat covers Robeson, Hoke, and Scotland counties.

Election officials in Hoke on Friday counted nearly 60 provisional ballots and rejected 105. Britt had a 268-vote lead over Hamm following election day, but by Friday that lead had narrowed to 245 votes.

WRAL reported:

If Britt wins, Republicans would retain control of the state Senate with 26 of the chamber’s 50 seats. If Hamm wins, the chamber would be split 25-25, giving Democratic Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt the power to break tie votes — an outcome that would give Democrats the power to pass new laws at will with support of the state’s Democratic Governor, Josh Stein. In Hoke County, where more than 160 voters cast provisional ballots, county election leaders ultimately decided to count just 59 of them. The rest were rejected for a variety of reasons, such as voters lacking photo identification and also not having an acceptable reason not to have ID.

Local officials still have more than 650 provisional ballots to examine and determine whether to accept as valid votes, according to WRAL.

The same process is taking place in the other counties, with Robeson inspecting about 530 provisional ballots and Scotland County looking about about 130, the outlet reported.

Despite the tightened gap, Britt’s campaign remained optimistic.

“We have a strong operation on the ground to ensure all legal votes are counted. We remain confident that Senator Britt and a Republican majority will be in position to fight the expected litany of Democratic-proposed tax hikes,” Pat Ryan, a spokesperson for Britt, told reporters Friday.

Final results of the race aren’t expected until later this month.

Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more