North Carolina law allows candidates in close elections to request a recount following the completion of county canvass, which is Friday, March 13. Any necessary ballot recounts from the 2026 primary election would be conducted by county boards of elections in the coming days.

This includes any requested recounts in the Senate District 26 contest in Guilford and Rockingham counties. Additional contests may result in recounts as well. All recounts are open to the public and paid for by the county boards of elections.

State Board staff will post any recount requests stemming from the 2026 primary at Recount Requests.

"The county boards of elections have put in long hours, working tirelessly throughout this election and the post-election period," said Sam Hayes, State Board executive director. "Our goal is to provide the counties with the resources they need during any recounts to ensure the process is transparent and orderly."

Recount Requests

Candidates who are trailing in the vote tally, according to official results after Friday's county canvass, may request a recount under the following scenarios:

• For a statewide ballot item, the difference between the winning candidate and the candidate requesting the recount is ½ of 1% (0.5%) of the votes cast in the ballot item, or 10,000 votes, whichever is less.
• For a non-statewide ballot item, the difference between the winning candidate and the candidate requesting the recount is 1% or less of the total votes cast in the contest.

For contests under jurisdiction of county boards of elections, a recount request must be made in writing to the county board by 5 p.m. Monday, March 16. In contests under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Elections, including multi-county state legislative districts like the Senate District 26 contest, the recount request must be in writing and received by the State Board by noon Tuesday, March 17.

First Recounts

If a recount is requested, the State Board of Elections would issue a schedule and instructions to the county boards. In an initial recount, the county boards of elections would feed all ballots cast in the relevant contest through a tabulator.

To ensure integrity and fairness, county boards use two-person, bipartisan teams for the processes involved. If there are any ballots that are rejected for tabulation purposes by the machines during the recount, they are required to be recounted by hand by a four-person, bipartisan team. Additionally, a quorum of county board members, with at least one Republican and one Democratic board member, must be present to make determinations about voter intent when in question on a ballot.

Recounts are public, and the county boards must provide public notice at least 48 hours before the start of any recount. The use of video or still cameras by the public is not typically allowed during recounts because of the state law prohibiting the photographing or videotaping of individual voted ballots.

Hand Recount

After the machine recount, the trailing candidate has 24 hours to request a hand recount in a sample of 3% of precincts and early voting sites, or a combination of both, in that contest. The sample will be drawn at random by State Board staff for contests in the State Board's jurisdiction. If a hand-to-eye recount is necessary, it would begin within two business days of the request for it.

The sample hand-to-eye recount is designed to determine whether there are sufficient discrepancies from the machine recount to require a full hand-to-eye recount of all ballots cast in the contest.

Full Hand Recount

If the results of the sample hand-to-eye recount among the randomly selected voting sites differ from the machine recount, such that extrapolating the amount of the change to the entire jurisdiction (based on the proportion of ballots recounted to the total votes cast for that office) would result in reversing the results, the State Board would order a full hand-to-eye recount of all ballots in that contest.

Election Protests

During the post-election period, the apparent results of an election may be called into question by voters or candidates through an "election protest," which is a formal complaint alleging that violations of election law, irregularities, or misconduct affected the results. A successful protest can correct results, cause a recount, or even result in a new election. For details on election protests, including how and when they must be filed and how they are considered by election officials, please see the State Board's Election Protest Procedures Guide.

Please see Election Protests for copies of protests filed in the 2026 primary election.

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