NC GOP still has a slim chance for a supermajority in this Cabarrus House district
Republicans’ slim and only hope for a supermajority in the state House lies in Cabarrus County, where Republican Brian Echevarria says he’ll wait to concede until all the votes are tallied.
Echevarria is down 425 votes, or 1.56%, to Democrat and Harrisburg Town Council member Diamond Staton-Williams. But the Cabarrus County Board of Elections still has votes left to count.
On Thursday evening, there were 715 provisional ballots and 869 absentee ballots countywide still to be counted or decided on, according to the Cabarrus Board of Elections. The board will accept mail-in ballots through Monday as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
It’s unclear how many of the provisional ballots will be found legitimate and exactly how many of the uncounted votes will be from House District 73. Provisional ballots are cast by voters whose eligibility is uncertain, and their legitimacy is reviewed later by elections officials.
About 40% of the county population lives in the 73rd, which includes Concord and Harrisburg.
Mail-in ballots typically favor Democrats. Of the 1,202 mail-in ballots counted so far in the 73rd, Staton-Williams took 73%.
“While we wait for final ballots to be certified, I am not conceding,” Echevarria wrote on Facebook. “There are still a number of ballots that need to be counted before results are certified, and until the Cabarrus County Board of Elections completes its canvass, we will not give up in our efforts to ensure every legally cast ballot is counted.”
If the canvass shows the race within 1%, Echevarria can request a recount.
When will we know?
The canvass of votes — when results are audited and made official by a bipartisan group of election officials — will happen Nov. 18.
The Associated Press has yet to call the race.
The only other N.C. House race the Associated Press hasn’t called is District 9, south of Greenville. In that race, Republican Tim Reeder is up by 462 votes.
If Echevarria pulls off the unlikely victory, it would give Republicans a supermajority in both chambers of the General Assembly. The GOP secured a 30-person supermajority in the Senate, but fell one seat short in the House. Having both chambers would allow Republicans to more easily overturn Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
Staton-Williams said Friday morning she’s confident she’ll maintain her lead.
Echevarria couldn’t be reached for comment Friday morning.
The race for House District 73 was one of the most expensive in the Charlotte region. The North Carolina House Democratic Caucus pumped $646,000 into Staton-Williams’ campaign and she raised more than $889,000 overall. The NC Republican Party gave $296,000 to Echevarria and he raised about $780,000 overall.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 11:30 AM.
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