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Given where we find our electoral process at this point, it’s important that we stick to the facts of the process.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had this to say earlier today, and he is exactly right:

"Here’s how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes.  That’s how Americans’ votes decide the result.” 

No one questions that every legal vote should be counted.  Transparency is critical to ensuring integrity of the vote.  Each state has its own laws governing the election process, if late ballots can be submitted, etc.  In Georgia, for example, absentee ballots mailed in do not require any sort of voter identification; Election Day ballots and Early Vote ballots do.  The Secretary of State in Georgia has announced that a recount will be forthcoming. 

Multiple challenges are being filed in court in all of these states where fraud concerns exist.  

In North Carolina, Early Vote ballots (those cast at Early Vote polling locations prior to Election Day) are technically Absentee ballots and are referred to as such on the state board of elections website.   Absentee ballots are also those which are requested via mail and returned via mail.  If you go to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website to see if your vote was registered, it will only show for those who voted on Election Day. 

If you voted during Early Vote (Absentee) or by mail-in Absentee ballot, it will not show on the website until the official canvass on November 13. 

The Pender County Board of Elections sent out this Memo below regarding this specific point: 

• Any voter that did not vote election day voted absentee. Either absentee in person or absentee by mail.
• The absentee tracking tool is for voters who DID NOT vote election day.
• All voters on election day placed their ballot into the ds200, election night those total votes were submitted to the state board and made public to the website.
• Vote History does not show up until the election is certified Canvass Day.
• Certification is November 13th. You will see your vote history then!
• If you Voted Election Day: all those votes were counted and reported election night.

At present, all state-wide Republican judicial candidates are ahead by fairly significant margins; the closest is the race for Chief Justice with Justice Paul Newby up by 3,000+  votes.  Any mail-in absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive by November 9 will be counted.  This extra length of time was challenged in federal court by state House and Senate Republicans, but the U.S. Supreme Court chose to let it stand in a 5-3 decision.  Looking at the math, it is unlikely any outcomes will change.

Because the election process is governed by state government, State House Speaker Tim Moore has directed the Joint (House/Senate) Elections Committee to take all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the elections in North Carolina.  You can find his letter here.

While we wait to see what happens in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, it is very clear that there was no blue wave this election.  Once all the votes are counted, Republicans in the US House will come just a few seats short of taking the majority.  Many of the polls suggested House Democrats would expand their majority by 10 to 15 seats -- in some polls, by 25 seats.  Just the opposite happened.  And the Senate is very likely to remain in Republican hands once the two runoff elections in Georgia for U.S. Senate are completed in January.  To date, only two Republicans lost re-election, while one Democrat seat flipped to the Republicans for a net loss of just one so far for Senate Republicans. 

Here is the bottom line:  Republicans at the state and federal levels across the country not only held their own; they made gains in many cases — particularly in state legislative races across the country.  And the Presidential race is still yet to be determined. 

House Republicans are calling for transparency and supporting the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee in their efforts on the ground in each of the key contested states.  There is a legal process to resolve these issues and that process is ongoing.