RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The Latest on Election Day in North Carolina (all times local):
1:25 a.m.
Democrat Roy Cooper has declared victory in North Carolina’s governor’s race.
Cooper came out shortly after Gov. Pat McCrory addressed supporters and said the race would be determined by a canvass of the state’s 100 counties on Nov. 18.
As for Cooper, he thanked his supporters for their hard work and said he had won the governor’s race.
Cooper said he is confident that the results of the election will be certified and that they will confirm victory.
With some cast votes yet to be reported, Cooper was only about 3,700 votes ahead of McCrory out of more than 4.6 million counted, according to totals posted by the State Board of Elections.
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12:55 a.m.
North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, locked in a tight race with Democrat Roy Cooper, told supporters that the election isn’t over and that they need to respect the election system.
McCrory came out after midnight to talk to supporters as the latest figures showed he trailed Cooper by 3,700 votes.
The governor also alluded to voting troubles in Durham County, where a computer glitch led to extended voting hours. McCrory had appeared to be ahead late Tuesday. But that was before the results of ballots at five early-voting sites in Durham County had been reported to the state, according to State Board of Elections official Veronica Degraffenreid.
McCrory said the final result will depend on the county canvasses scheduled for Nov. 18.
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12:15 a.m.
Republican Dale Folwell is set to become North Carolina’s next treasurer.
Democrat Dan Blue III also had been vying to replace two-term Democrat Janet Cowell.
Folwell, a former state representative, had served in Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration as head of the state’s unemployment benefits office and had previously run for treasurer and lieutenant governor.
Cowell had endorsed Blue, calling him a leader who will protect retirement and health benefits for government and public employees and who is knowledgeable about issues facing the state. Blue is the Wake County Democratic Party’s former chairman.
The treasurer’s primary job is overseeing and investing public employee pension funds for more than 900,000 North Carolina teachers, state employees, firefighters, police officers and others. The funds are valued at about $87 billion.
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11:55 p.m.
Republican Mark Johnson has defeated three-term Democratic incumbent June Atkinson to become North Carolina’s next superintendent of public instruction.
Atkinson has served in the office since 2005.
The superintendent is the head of the state’s education bureaucracy. The post has virtually no power or management duties and chiefly serves as the top cheerleader for the state’s public schools.
Johnson is a lawyer and a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth Board of Education. He argued during the campaign that the department of public instruction needed to be reformed.
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11:45 p.m.
Democrats have taken a majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Mike Morgan on Tuesday defeated Associate Justice Bob Edmunds, who was seeking a third term. While Supreme Court races are officially nonpartisan, Morgan’s election means four of the seven justices will be registered Democrats.
Morgan campaigned on his trial court experience and argued Edmunds had contributed to the Supreme Court’s politicization. The Republican majority recently upheld GOP laws creating redistricting boundaries and allowing taxpayer-funded scholarships for children to attend private schools.
Edmunds disagreed with Morgan about the court’s political tone and highlighted his bipartisan support from former chief justices and current sheriffs.
Outside groups spent millions on TV ads for the election.
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11:35 p.m. Democrat Elaine Marshall has won a sixth term as North Carolina’s secretary of state.
Marshall had been challenged by Republican Michael LaPaglia of Durham.
Marshall has led the department for 20 years and was the first woman elected to a statewide office. The job’s duties include enforcing ethics rules, overseeing legislative lobbyists and investigating securities fraud.
LaPaglia owns a consulting company that advises museums and historic sites.
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11:25 p.m.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest has beaten Democratic challenger Linda Coleman.
The election was a rematch of 2012, when Forest narrowly topped Coleman by nearly 7,000 votes out of 4.4 million ballots cast.
Forest has become one of the state’s most outspoken advocates for conservative social issues. He also has been a leader in defending a state law that requires transgender people to use restrooms in schools and state government buildings that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates.
Coleman had aligned herself with the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, Attorney General Roy Cooper, and argued the law was hurting the state’s economy and its reputation.
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11:10 p.m.
Republican Donald Trump has won a key victory in the Southern battleground state of North Carolina, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state’s presidential election.
Trump defeated Clinton on Tuesday in a general election that was widely seen as a referendum on several years of GOP control under Gov. Pat McCrory. It also was strongly influenced by a law limiting LGBT rights that was signed and defended by McCrory.
North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes are considered crucial in the battle for the White House. The state has gone to a Democrat only once since Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976, when Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2008.
Trump and running mate Mike Pence frequently visited North Carolina in recent months, targeting rural areas where they enjoyed strong support.
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11 p.m.
Political newcomer Ted Budd has defeated Democrat Bruce Davis to become the state’s newest member of Congress.
Budd will represent the redrawn 13th Congressional District.
The new district’s new lines were drawn when a federal court ordered lawmakers to redraw congressional lines because the old maps were unconstitutional.
Budd is a gun store owner who beat 16 contenders to win the Republican primary. While Davis had previous political experience serving on the Guilford County Commission, Budd went into the election with the advantage of the new district being majority Republican.
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10:50 p.m.
Republican Cherie Berry has won her fifth term as North Carolina’s labor commissioner, defeating Democrat Charles Meeker.
Berry is perhaps most recognizable as the woman whose name and picture is on every elevator inspection tag in the state.
Meeker is the former mayor of Raleigh and had the backing of the AFL-CIO.
The labor commissioner is responsible for protecting the safety of the state’s 4.3 million workers.
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10:40 p.m.
Richard Hudson has won a third term in Congress representing North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District.
The Concord Republican defeated Democrat Thomas Mills on Tuesday. Mills lives in Carrboro, outside of the district that stretches from Salisbury to points east and south to Fort Bragg and Fayetteville.
Hudson serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and received national attention in the past year for sponsoring legislation aimed at improving the vetting of refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Hudson ran Pat McCrory’s unsuccessful 2008 gubernatorial campaign and previously was chief of staff to a former 8th District congressman, Robin Hayes. Mills worked on political campaigns for more than 20 years and operates a state politics blog.
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10:30 p.m.
Republican Steve Troxler has won a fourth term as the head of North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture.
Troxler had been challenged by Democrat Walter Smith in a rematch of the race in 2012.
Troxler is familiar throughout the state’s agricultural industry, and the department oversees the state’s food safety efforts.
Smith is a farmer from Yadkinville. He retired from the Farm Service Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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10:20 p.m.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Burr has held off a challenge from Democrat Deborah Ross to retain his seat.
Burr repeatedly attacked Ross for her work as the former top attorney and lobbyist for the state American Civil Liberties Union in his bid for a third term.
Throughout her campaign, Ross tied the Republican senator to Donald Trump and to state GOP policies such as the law limiting protections for LGBT people.
Tuesday’s race was considered critical for Democrats trying to regain control of the Senate. Ross was initially not well-known outside Raleigh, but outside money poured in as national Democrats increasingly saw Burr as vulnerable.
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10 p.m.
Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx has won re-election to Congress representing northwestern North Carolina by defeating the same Democratic challenger she beat two years ago.
Foxx earned a seventh term representing the 5th Congressional District on Tuesday, beating 2014 rival Josh Brannon, who is from Watauga County.
Foxx resides in Banner Elk and previously served in the state Senate before her first congressional win in 2004. The former community college administrator has risen through the ranks in the House and is now secretary of the House Republican Conference, or caucus.
The GOP-leaning 5th District covers all or parts of 11 counties, stretching from Winston-Salem west into the foothills and mountains.
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9:55 p.m.
The successor to the longest-serving Republican U.S. House member in North Carolina history is starting a streak of his own.
Rep. Mark Walker of Summerfield won his second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Pete Glidewell in the 6th District covering several counties in the Triad and Sandhills regions.
Walker is a Baptist pastor who succeeded the late Rep. Howard Coble of Greensboro, who retired in 2014 after 30 years in Congress. Walker needed a runoff to win the GOP nomination two years ago.
Walker is considered a reliable conservative vote in the House who has worked on legislation to fight human trafficking.
Glidewell is a former Alamance County Democratic Party chairman.
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9:40 p.m.
North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District is remaining in Republican hands with a repeat victory for Rep. David Rouzer.
The former state senator from Johnston County won a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat J. Wesley Casteen of Wilmington. The two met in the 2014 general election when Casteen ran as a Libertarian.
Rouzer narrowly lost to Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre in the 2012 general election. McIntyre chose not to seek re-election in 2014 in the Republican-leaning district. Rouzer was previously a federal lobbyist and aide to U.S. Sens. Jesse Helms and Elizabeth Dole.
The 7th District stretches across nine southeastern North Carolina counties, from Wilmington straddling Interstate 40 north toward the outskirts of the Triangle.
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9:35 p.m.
Veteran U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr. is going back to Washington to represent eastern and coastal north Carolina.
The Farmville Republican easily won the 3rd Congressional District election Tuesday over Democrat Ernest Reeves of Greenville. Reeves ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate earlier this year and in 2014.
Jones is a former state legislator who was first elected to Congress 22 years ago. His father also represented the region for 26 years until his death in 1992.
The younger Jones hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with Republican leadership in Congress or in the White House. He spoke out against the Iraq war and has been targeted by GOP primary challengers who accused him of being too liberal.
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9:30 p.m.
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield has won re-election in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.
The Wilson Democrat and current chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus earned a seventh two-year term Tuesday, easily defeating Republican H. Powell Dew, a Stantonsburg council member, and Libertarian J.J. Summerell.
Butterfield is a former state Supreme Court justice first elected to Congress in 2004. The caucus chairmanship has raised his profile nationally and in North Carolina. He’s been a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and spoke out on issues of race, including the shooting of a black man by a Charlotte police officer in September.
The 1st District covers all or parts of 14 eastern North Carolina counties, stretching from Durham to points east, bringing in parts of Greenville, Goldsboro and New Bern.
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9:20 p.m.
Republican U.S. Rep. George Holding has captured a third term in Congress.
The Raleigh attorney and former federal prosecutor defeated Democrat John McNeill, a military veteran and law firm and mediation service owner.
Holding had been representing the 13th District since 2013, but North Carolina congressional maps redrawn last February put him in the same district as longtime U.S. Rep. David Price.
So Holding instead ran for the retooled 2nd District that contained much of his old eastern Piedmont district, including the Triangle. He defeated current 2nd District Rep. Renee Ellmers and Greg Brannon in an expensive GOP primary in June.
Holding’s campaign had a large financial advantage over McNeill this fall.
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8:45 p.m.
Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry has been elected to a seventh term in office in North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District.
McHenry comfortably defeated Democrat Andy Millard.
McHenry is the chief deputy whip of the House and has been in Congress since 2005.
The 10th District starts just west of Charlotte and stretches across the southwestern part of the state to the mountains. It is predominantly Republican and has been represented by the GOP for more than four decades.
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8:10 p.m.
U.S. Rep. David Price had little trouble winning a 15th term to Congress even after redistricting consolidated his 4th District from eight central North Carolina counties to three in the Triangle.
The Chapel Hill Democrat defeated Republican Sue Googe of Cary on Tuesday by a comfortable margin in the heavily Democratic district.
Price is a former Duke University professor and state Democratic Party executive first elected to Congress in 1986. He’s been elected every two years since, except for 1994, when he lost in the general election.
Price serves on the House Appropriations Committee and is the ranking Democrat on its Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee.
The 4th District now includes all of Orange County and parts of Wake and Durham counties.
8 p.m.
Democrat Alma Adams is returning to Congress for a second term to represent the radically redrawn 12th Congressional District.
Adams defeated Republican Leon Threatt to return to Washington to represent the new district that now covers most of Charlotte.
Adams was first elected in 2014 to represent a district that had been gerrymandered to represent a long, narrow district that stretched from Greensboro to Charlotte along Interstate 85. That district was declared unconstitutional by a federal court and resulted in the congressional district boundaries for the state having to be redrawn earlier this year.
The redrawn 12th District remains heavily Democratic, however.
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7:35 p.m.
A judge is refusing to change the North Carolina Board of Elections decision to extend voting in eight Durham County precincts.
Judge Don Stephens rejected a bid to keep all polling places in heavily-Democratic Durham County open for 90 additional minutes.
The state board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to keep two Durham precincts open for an hour and six other precincts open a shorter amount of time. The problems were caused by a computer glitch that forced poll workers to use paper rolls to check in voters.
One precinct in Columbus County is staying open an extra 30 minutes for a similar problem.
Stephens says the state law allowing anyone in line to vote when the polls close is enough protection.
Polls closed in most of North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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7:30 p.m.
Most of North Carolina’s voting precincts have closed, save for a number of Durham County sites kept open because of computer problems.
The North Carolina Board of Elections has agreed to extend voting in eight precincts in Durham County. The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday evening to extend voting by an hour in two precincts most heavily affected by a computer glitch that forced poll workers to check for registered voters on paper printouts. The board says six more precincts can stay open a shorter amount of time.
A similar problem arose in Columbus County, extending voting hours there at one precinct.
For those voting precincts that were problem-free, polls across the state closed at 7:30 p.m.
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7:05 p.m.
The North Carolina Board of Elections has agreed to extend voting in eight precincts in Durham County.
The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday evening to extend voting by an hour in two precincts most heavily affected by a computer glitch that forced poll workers to check for registered voters on paper printouts. The board says six more precincts can stay open a shorter amount of time.
The NAACP asked for the eight precincts to stay open for 90 extra minutes.
Polls are set to close in the rest of North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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6:35 p.m.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign says she supports keeping the polls open later in Durham County because of voting problems.
In a statement, Clinton’s campaign points out the two Republicans and one Democrat on the Durham County Board of Elections supported extending poll hours because problems stopped poll workers from checking in voters on computers.
The state Board of Elections is considering the request and an emergency hearing is being held in a lawsuit asking for extended poll hours in the county.
The polls are scheduled to close at 7:30 p.m. and anyone in line at that time will be able to vote.
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5:35 p.m.
Advocacy groups say they’re suing to extend voting hours in Durham County by 90 minutes because of computer problems that resulted in a paper check-in process.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice said in a news release that it filed a lawsuit on behalf of Democracy North Carolina requesting an emergency action from Wake County Superior Court. The groups want the court to order the State Board of Elections to keep Durham County polls open.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Don Stephens is expected to preside over the emergency hearing.
Meanwhile, the Durham County Board of Elections has asked state board to extend voting hours at one precinct, the Bethesda Ruritan Club. It also is gathering information for the state board about whether hours at other locations should be extended. The county board will then determine whether to request extended hours at any other polling location.
The computer problem resulted in at least one precinct running out of authorization-to-vote forms for about 90 minutes.
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5:10 p.m.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections is holding an emergency meeting to consider requests from Durham and other counties to extend voting hours.
The board said in a news release that the five members will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to consider requests for extended hours. An earlier news release notes that Durham elections officials haven’t reported significant wait times through most of the day.
Durham County spokeswoman Briana Khan says the county board sought permission Tuesday from the State Board of Elections to allow voting to continue until 9 p.m. in all 57 precincts rather than 7:30 p.m.
The request was made after a computer problem in some precincts resulted in elections officials relying on a paper check-in process. That resulted in at least one precinct and perhaps more running out of authorization-to-vote forms.
Voters in line at 7:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
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4:15 p.m.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections plans to meet to consider any requests from Durham and other counties to extend voting hours.
A state board spokesman said in a news release that the five-member board will meet later Tuesday to consider requests for extended hours. But it notes that Durham elections officials haven’t reported significant wait times through most of the day.
The state board’s attorney, Joshua Lawson, told The Associated Press that there’s no indication that “nefarious activity” caused the computer problems, but rather a failure to clear out caches of votes cast during the party primaries. About two dozen other North Carolina counties using the same software have not reported any problems.
Durham County spokeswoman Briana Khan says the county board sought permission Tuesday from the State Board of Elections to allow voting to continue until 9 p.m. in all 57 precincts rather than 7:30 p.m.
The request was made after a computer problem in some precincts resulted in elections officials relying on a paper check-in process. That resulted in at least one precinct and perhaps more running out of authorization-to-vote forms.
Any voter in line at 7:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
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2:55 p.m.
The Durham County Board of Elections wants to extend voting by 90 minutes because of problems that are creating lines there and is putting together the evidence to show the extension is needed.
County spokeswoman Briana Khan says the county board sought permission Tuesday from the State Board of Elections to allow voting to continue until 9 p.m. in all 57 precincts. Khan says the state board has demanded evidence that the problems affected all the precincts so the county has called in 60 additional employees to put together that information. The State Board has not responded to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment on the situation.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice and other groups also asked the state board to extend voting hours in Durham County after a computer problem resulted in elections officials relying on a paper check-in process. That resulted in at least one precinct running out of authorization-to-vote forms.
Meanwhile, the president of the state chapter of the NAACP is asking voters not to be deterred from casting their ballots. The Rev. William Barber says voters need to stay at the polls and exercise their right to vote.
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1:30 p.m.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is among the organizations asking that polls stay open an extra hour in Durham County because of problems there.
The coalition and other organizations coordinating North Carolina’s Election Protection Coalition sent a letter Tuesday to the State Board of Elections asking that polls close at 8:30 p.m. rather than 7:30 p.m.
The request came after a computer problem resulted in elections officials relying on a paper check-in process, resulting in at least one precinct running out of authorization-to-vote forms.
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1:10 p.m.
Organizers of an election protection hotline in North Carolina say they’re receiving calls from people who were not put on the voter rolls after they thought they had registered to vote through the Division of Motor Vehicles.
A federal judge last month ordered that election officials count ballots cast by citizens who say they registered or updated registration at DMV officers since summer 2015. She ruled that DMV was not abiding by the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the “motor voter” law.
Dustin Chicurel-Bayard of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice says a hotline in Chapel Hill has received perhaps dozens of calls from people saying they’re not being allowed to vote. He says if a voter’s name isn’t on the record, the poll worker is supposed to ask if the person registered through DMV.
If so, the voter is allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
Chicurel-Bayard says the coalition is concerned that some voters who are turned away might not seek help in getting a ballot.
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12:45 p.m.
Officials say some voters did leave when one precinct in Durham County ran out of its authorization-to-vote forms for about 90 minutes.
County public information specialist Briana Khan says one precinct ran out of the forms from 9:30 a.m. to about 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Khan says no voter was turned away from the Bethesda Ruritan precinct, although some did leave when they were told that precinct workers were waiting for new forms. She didn’t have an estimate on how many left the line.
Durham County also is using paper poll books instead of electronic check-in because at least five precincts had technical issues.
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12:20 p.m.
Officials say one precinct in Durham County ran out of its authorization-to-vote forms but that the forms were replenished.
A county spokeswoman says she’s not sure how long the precinct was out of the forms, which voters sign before they get their ballots.
One man said on Twitter that dozens of voters were turned away from the Bethesda Ruritan precinct. County public information specialist Briana Khan says she’s not aware of that happening.
Durham County also is using paper poll books instead of electronic check-in because at least five precincts had technical issues.
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9:10 a.m.
The State Board of Elections has advised Durham County officials to use paper poll books throughout the day after at least five precincts had technical issues with computer check-ins.
Elections board spokesman Patrick Gannon said in an email Tuesday that the board made the decision “out of an abundance of caution.” Gannon said voting wasn’t interrupted.
The change affects check-in only. The county already uses paper ballots.
Durham County officials had warned on Twitter that wait times may increase because the electronic check-in is faster than the manual one.
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6:30 a.m.
North Carolina voters are going to the polls to help pick a president and decide whether Gov. Pat McCrory should serve four more years.
Polls opened at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for those who have not already cast ballots. Unofficial totals indicate that nearly three million people have already voted.
Both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump were campaigning in North Carolina the day before the traditional voting started. The state is a key battleground for both campaigns.
Voters also will decide whether Republican incumbent Pat McCrory or Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper will be governor for the next four years.
There is also a close U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Deborah Ross.
The polls close at 7:30 p.m.
(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
11/9/2016 1:22:50 AM (GMT -5:00)