Hey, it's Howie Mandel, and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do-It gaming team take on Gilly the King and Wallow 267's Million Dollars Gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown. Four rounds, multiple games, one winner, plus a halftime performance by multi-platinum artist Travi McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against NEO right now at GlobalGamingLeague.com. That's globalgamingleague.com. Everybody games.
Yeah. It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. All eyes remain on the very close race in Rockingham and northern Guilford County between Senate leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
And the machine recounts in both of those counties did, in fact, wrap up yesterday and did not change the outcome in that closely watched primary. Page's lead remains at 23 votes as of today. According to county election officials, the recount in Guilford County resulted in a net zero change to the margin, with both candidates losing one vote. Page's overall lead, therefore, remains unchanged. In Rockingham County, where Page built much of his advantage the recount likewise produced no change in the final count In a statement, Patrick Sebastian, the post-election advisor for Sheriff Sam Page, said, quote, Phil Berger lost this race and the recount confirmed it.
His refusal to accept that reality is an insult to the voters and a waste of taxpayer dollars. It's time for Phil Berger to concede and offer his complete and total endorsement to Sam Page. The results reinforce the razor-thin gap that emerged after the county canvas process that we watched take place over the last couple of weeks, with Page maintaining a district-wide lead vote total of just 23 votes. Berger requested the recount after trailing by that total, as North Carolina law permits candidates that are within 1% of the total vote to formally request a recount. Once a recount is made under this condition, the county election officials conduct what is known as a machine recount of all ballots to confirm or update the results.
Historically, recounts in North Carolina rarely shift more than a handful of votes, and the outcome in Guilford and Rockingham County would appear to follow that pattern. And probably stronger than anything else, shows that while the voting machines and the voting tabulators that are used, whether we're talking about Election Day, early voting, are highly, highly accurate. With the machine recounts failing to alter the margin, attention now turns to ballot protests that were filed by the Burger campaign. The Guilford County Board of Elections is scheduled to host a hearing coming up later today to deal with some of those protests. Same thing with the Rockingham County Board of Elections.
So we will keep a close eye on that and see if anything goes on there. Berger still has the ability, he has 24 hours to request a partial hand-eye recount under state law. In this process, North Carolina allows candidates in close races to ask for a manual hand count of a sample of selected precincts, not the entirety of the race, just a sample. If the manual count uncovers discrepancies between a set threshold compared to what we just saw with the machine recount over the last couple of days, the process can then expand to a full hand recount of every single ballot within the district. Such fullhand recounts are rare and typically do not significantly change vote totals.
So, as of right now, the results leave Sam Page in the same narrow lead that he held coming out of the county canvas. We will continue to follow these ballot protests. We'll chat with Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation coming up here in just a little bit as to what exactly these protests are and what are the likelihoods, what is the likelihood, I should say, of Berger being successful in some of those challenges. He'll join us coming up a little bit later on here in the program.
Onto some other statewide news this morning, North Carolina's top fire official is warning lawmakers that the state is in fact not prepared, that is not prepared for the growing wildfire threat facing western counties, citing storm damage, staffing shortages, and limited resources that could shape fire response for the next decade. This is all coming from a recent meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Emergency Management with officials from the North Carolina Forest Service and emergency management agencies outlining what they are calling compounding risks tied to Hurricane Helene damage and workforce shortages. At the center of those concerns is the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which forestry officials say damaged more than 822,000 acres of forest land in western North Carolina, a figure that they now believe is an underestimate based on updated satellite analysis of the region. The storm left behind vast stretches of downed timber, creating dense fuel for future wildfires while simultaneously blocking access routes that firefighters have long relied on to fight wildfires in western North Carolina. The debris left by Helene is already altering wildfire behavior as fires are burning much hotter, spreading more unpredictably, and lasting significantly longer, even outside of the state's typical fire season, of which we have two, one in the spring and one in the fall.
Deputy State Forester Kevin Harvell pointed out that the Black Cove fire in Polk and Henderson counties as a preview of what could be ahead. Those fires were fueled by storm-damaged timber, and the fire burned for weeks, repeatedly jumping containment lines and requiring resources from across the various counties to get it under control. With him telling lawmakers, this will be the norm for the next 10 to 15 years when we get fires established in these hellened damaged areas. The implications extend beyond forests as fires grow more intense and harder to control. Unfortunately, more homes and communities in wildland urban interfaces where development meets forests will be at risk.
And of course, for anybody that has spent any significant time out in western North Carolina, you have seen plenty of those areas. State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor said his. His office, which primarily focuses on protecting structures and supporting local fire departments, is particularly concerned about what those conditions mean for public safety. Staffing was a main topic of discussion as well. Even as the fire risks increase, the state's ability to respond remains constrained by persistent staffing shortages within the North Carolina Forest Service.
The agency currently has about 77 vacancies with turnovers pretty concrete in entry-level positions that serve as the first line of response to wildfires. These county-level rangers and equipment operators often work alongside local fire departments throughout the state and are critical to containing fires before they continue to escalate. State forester Greg Hicks told lawmakers that the problem is largely driven by pay. An entry-level forestry technician earns $39,000 a year annually, and the salary does not increase with experience due to funding limitations. As a result, employees with more than a decade on the job are earning essentially the same amount as brand new hires.
With Hicks telling the North Carolina General Assembly, we really don't have a mechanism to move these personnel through the pay grades. Once we get personnel in there, there are no steps unless they increase from unless there is an increase from the legislature. The consequences are costly. Training a new wildland firefighter can cost the state up to thirty thousand dollars, and roughly one third of the new hires leave before completing the agency's extensive two year training program. With Hicks warning lawmakers, wildfire is not something you just pull somebody off the street and teach.
Lawmakers also heard that equipment shortages are compounding some of the state's challenges. With the Forest Service currently down one helicopter that officials say is beyond repair, that leaves the state with a limited fleet at a time when aircraft are increasingly critical for reaching fires in more inaccessible terrain and areas. Helicopters can deliver water to areas that ground crews cannot reach, a capability that is especially important in these various forests in western North Carolina that are clogged with storm debris. Officials say that they plan to seek funding from the legislature to replace that beyond repair aircraft while also exploring options to acquire some level of surplus military equipment that they deem could be helpful. The warning comes as wildfire activity increases across the Tar Heels state.
The Forest Service responded to 5,590 wildfires last year, which is well above the annual average.
So far, this month alone, officials reported 518 fires burning more than 2,700 acres, including 94 fires in a single day earlier this week. While fires are occurring statewide, Western North Carolina remains the primary concern due to some of that storm damage and difficult terrain. With Harvell telling the committee, we're going to have to go around these highly damaged areas. That means larger fires, more smoke, and greater safety concerns for the public. With him urging lawmakers to rethink how the state funds disaster response, arguing that delays in securing resources for the Forest Service and fire resources across the state could hinder efforts on the ground.
He told the committee, it is very important for us to have a disaster dollar up front and not wait until we come before you for a disaster budget. He suggested creating dedicated funding pools for both the Forest Service and the Office of the State Fire Marshal that could be accessed immediately during emergencies rather than waiting for legislative approval after a disaster has been declared. And Taylor also said that the state may need to rely more heavily on contract firefighters in the coming years to help supplement some of its workforce, a shift that would require additional planning and funding. We've got some additional details on this. A very interesting story about wildfires that is going to be a much more significant risk across North Carolina.
Those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline: State Fire Marshal Warns of Escalating Wildfire Risk. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself.
That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. It's 521.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. We are keeping a close eye on the Razor-Thin race in Rockingham and northern portions of Guilford County that pits Sam Page, the Rockingham County Sheriff, against the longest-serving Senate leader in North Carolina history, Phil Berger. There's been a recount that's been going on over the last couple of days. The 23-vote margin victory for Page does remain as of this morning.
However, there were a couple of ballot challenges that were made earlier this week by Phil Berger and his team. To walk us through some of those details this morning, it's my pleasure to welcome back Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Andy, there were a couple of different things in these challenges that were brought forth by Phil Berger and his team. I want to start off with one of the ones that I think is rather interesting.
Unaffiliated voters who, as you told us before, even the early voting period began, they have the choice to vote in either the Republican or the Democrat primary. But I guess sometimes people walk in, request a ballot, and then change their mind before they've officially. Voted and request the other party's ballot. That is one of the challenges that the Burger team is making. Is that something that's pretty common from your experience?
Well, I don't think it's that common, but it certainly is something that happens. You are allowed to spoil your ballot. The question is: are you allowed to spoil a ballot for one party to get a ballot from another party? Another thing that is not clear in the protest, at least initially, is: are these folks that had actually gone all the way through were about to vote and then spoiled it, or did they make a request and then make another request right off the bat? This will come a little clearer as we proceed with this.
I don't know how successful the Burger camp will be with these in particular because unaffiliated are allowed to vote in either party's primary. Yeah, and this process is interesting for those that walk in there. Very clearly asked, Andy, what party or what ballot would you like to vote in, either the Republican or the Democrat primary? Or people change their minds on a variety of different factors, I guess, throughout the day and throughout their lives. State law seems a little bit ambiguous or general statute seems a little bit ambiguous when it comes to this situation where somebody may request a ballot and then change their mind before they've actually voted.
It doesn't seem super clear. Yeah, it's not. It probably would probably behoove us to probably get that clarified for future reference. As a general guide, people can vote. If you're unaffiliated, you can vote in the party that you want.
And that's kind of the North Star for this situation. But yes, some clarity on that probably would be helpful because we'll end up with more situations like this down the line if this is not made really cut and dry. Yeah, and we typically see this in the more local elections, whether we're talking about the General Assembly, County Commission, School Board, County Commission, Andy, in some of these races, there's only a couple thousand or maybe even a couple of hundred votes in total.
So that's where you can get these super small margins between winning candidates and losing candidates. On to some of the other challenges. A couple of them deal with voters that said multiple times they had attempted to change their voter registration, whether that was through the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicle with a license renewal, or anybody can do it online through the My DMV portal or trying to request it through their local county board of election. That is something that unfortunately I think is all too common here in North Carolina. Andy, I've heard stories from even friends where they've renewed their driver's license and they're all of a sudden shot back to unaffiliated.
They were registered a Republican or Democrat. That does seem to happen. Do you think those protests have any legs? They might have more success with these. Both of those and the previous ones you mentioned were all part of the Rockingham County protests are filed by county.
And so, yeah, they might, if these are people that already had established residency in Rockingham County and they were moving within the county, they should have been able to get a ballot at the new address. If these are people that had not yet established residency, like they had moved into the county from another county, that one might be a little more difficult for them to get through. But if you're in the county, you should be able to vote, especially in Rockingham County, no matter where you live. You could vote in that Senate race.
So, even if you were voting at your old precinct, at your old address, you'd still be able to vote in the 26th district Senate primary.
So, depending on where these folks were coming from before they moved, they'd probably have a lot better chance of success with this protest than the ones for people changing their ballot. And Andy, I think I'll kind of use this as an opportunity to do a PSA to our audience here across the state of North Carolina. It does unfortunately happen more common than I think it should happen that people's party affiliation just miraculously changes. There's a variety of different reasons that something like that can happen. But this is something that unfortunately happens.
So it might be a good opportunity for everybody to head on over to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, search up their name, their spouse's name, their children's name, and make sure that they are still registered with the party that they, in fact, want to be affiliated with. This is a problem that we had with the motor voter. What happened is now we've essentially made DMV workers voter registration workers as well. That's not their job. That's not what they're trained to do.
That's not what they're knowledgeable about. And they're just kind of shuffling through the system.
So, what happens sometimes is you're going through, you're getting your driver's license, and they're starting to do this whole battery of questions. Oh, and one of those would you like to update your registration or get registered? And you'll say, sure, and they'll go through the process with you. But one thing we've noticed is a lot of things that happen is you get a lot more people registered unaffiliated that go through DMV. We have a lot fewer people that report their sex.
The people have like undetermined sex, male or female. Disproportionately from DMV registrations, undetermined race, which is useful for helping comply with the Voting Rights Act, disproportionately through DMV.
So, a lot of these kinds of questions and important information, a lot of times, gets lost when you do these registrations through DMV. Yeah, definitely. No question about that. We've seen a lot of those discussions and issues over the last couple of years from DMV. All right, Andy, let's head to our final set of protests levied by the Burger team earlier this week.
This deals with some voters in Guilford County that allegedly, and I'm going to use that word very strongly, allegedly did not receive a ballot that had the North Carolina 26 Senate race on it, which is the race between Phil Burger and Sam Page. There's at least seven, potentially an eighth voter that claims they didn't have the right to vote in that contest. But as the Burger camp noted in their protest, they don't really have any way to verify whether that's true or not. Yeah, and this one could only happen in Guilford because Rockingham, everybody gets the 26th Senate District on their ballot. Most of Guilford County is not in the 26th district.
And so, yeah, this one's probably going to be at best a long shot because you actually have to verify this information. Certainly the eighth one, which is essentially hearsay, somebody heard that somebody else did not get the proper ballot. They're not going to be able to succeed on getting these ballots reversed and saying, well, enough people didn't get the right ballot that affected the outcome of the election. One, we can't verify any of these eight. And two, even if you could, that's not getting you anywhere close to 23.
Their best hope is to combine this with the protests that they had in Rockingham. They can say, well, there are enough problems that we can't really know who truly won the election. Once again, I think that is a long shot. There's always hiccups in anything as large as a statewide election or even a multi-county-wide election like this. But What they've gotten so far is going to be a real stretch to get that into a new election called.
Yeah, and there was even some discussion from the Burger team. They cited a couple of different things within North Carolina general statute saying for those alleged eight voters in Guilford County, or at least seven, maybe eight voters in Guilford County, that their constitutional rights may have been affected because they were not given the right to vote in this contest. Seemingly going, from my vantage point, a little bit overboard on what may or may not have happened again, because the only people that can truly verify this, I guess, would be the Guilford County Board of Elections. Yeah, what they could do is the issue is with if they're election day ballots, there's no, you can't retrieve them. There's no way to find them, match them up with the voter.
If these were early ballots or mail ballots, absentee ballots, you might be able to do that and then get these people to produce affidavits saying this. I think that language there that the Burger Camp used is potentially helping to set up if this gets to the lawsuit phase of this, which unfortunately in North Carolina, these kind of things often get to that phase. But this is a setup for that, that they'll have something else to put in the complaint as they file it. And Andy, with all of this, we've talked about these different protests here this morning. That still only leaves us with 13 protests, assuming every single one of them were voters for Sam Page and all 13 of them were either removed or added and whatever.
We're still only talking about 13 out of 23 votes. I don't know how Berger could make up those additional 10, even with these protests that have been lobbied so far. Yeah, it's kind of like those old World War II submarine movies where you shoot every torpedo and you hope you get a couple of hits out of this.
So the Burger Camp is hoping, okay, maybe this recount, because we're going to be getting into the next phases of recount soon, almost assuredly, that they'll get a few there, then they'll get a few from the protests, and you get enough, and then you kind of get over that line to say, okay, we really don't know who really won. And that's their hope.
So they're just putting everything out on the table right now. It is still, of course, an incredibly dynamic situation. We encourage our audience this morning to visit our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where we'll continue to keep you up to date with the latest news as we get it, not only from the Burger campaign, but from the Page campaign as well. We appreciate the information this morning. Dr.
Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Bring incredible sound into every corner of your home with the new WimSound smart speaker. Get high-resolution audio with a 1.8-inch touchscreen, smart control, and modern design in one powerful speaker for just $299. From quiet mornings to lively family gatherings, WimSound makes every moment sound better and feel better too. Create a home filled with sound you love.
Ready to upgrade your sound? Shop now at Amazon and search WimSound. That's W-I-I-M-S-O-U-N-D. Ooh. It's 5:38.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT. There's a pretty important committee that is meeting under the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Their goal is to modernize not only election systems, but public-facing websites and programs that those that are involved in political activity across North Carolina. We told you about this group back a couple of weeks ago when they had their first meeting. They had another one this week.
To walk us through some of those details this morning, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, this group, it's baked right into the name Modernizing the State's Election System. You had a chance to watch this meeting earlier this week. What did you learn from the committee? Sure.
Thanks for having me, Nick.
So yes, they had their first meeting last month, and it was basically to bring campaign finance software and also other you know, programs up to date.
Some of them have been Over 30 years old, right? We talked about DMV previously needing an upgrade because their systems are so old, and so are the voting systems in North Carolina. And the main focus of this meeting this week, although we did get an update from my executive director of the state election board, Sam Hayes, he talked about the vendor that's going to go ahead and replace the SEAMS system. That's the election information management system. He did briefly talk about that, which we've already covered.
But the main goal of this past meeting was to talk about updating the campaign finance software.
So they had, in addition to the subcommittee that broke down, which we'll get into in a little bit, what their goals were and what they've accomplished so far, they heard from state officials from state election officials from Mississippi and Maryland give their feedback on what they're doing because they've already gone through this process not too long ago.
So it was an interesting take to see what those two states have done.
So we did hear from those. But again, we did hear from the subcommittee and they gave some, you know, they had a couple other meetings in between that maybe weren't, you know, with the whole committee. But they or this whole commission, rather, but they did come to some points on what we can expect. They hope to. hope to achieve in the modernizing these systems.
Teresa, I love to hear that they have brought in officials from other states. There's no question about it. And this is not even necessarily a government problem. When you have these old antiquated systems, 20, 30, maybe in some cases, 40 years old, if you're going really far back into the record book on it, these are very complicated transitions. We see big business struggle and deal with this stuff as well.
To me, great idea to bring in states that have recently gone through this process to hopefully not make some of those same mistakes and only have to do it once here in North Carolina, not have to do it two or three different times. Right, right. And one thing that the states, Mississippi, Maryland, the officials stressed over and over again is to have plenty of training, as you just mentioned, right? You don't want to keep going over this over and over, training on all the different software, just making sure all your officials are up to speed on what's going on with these new systems. And again, they couldn't stress that enough to have plenty of training in place.
So, yeah, it is a good idea to get an idea of what other states have been looking into, what's been working for them, rather than just trying to maybe cobble something together on their own and figure it out later and then maybe have to go back to the drawing board again, right? Yeah, and unfortunately, we've seen that in the past with the plethora of state agencies here in North Carolina. I'll resign from that. We won't go down that rabbit hole here this morning, Teresa. But as we look at this, I think it's important to bring our audience up to date.
This is not just a system that the state board of elections and a couple of people in Rochester. Raleigh dealt with. This is dealt with these information systems are dealt with in every single county across our state, whether we're talking about routine list maintenance, registering new voters across North Carolina. Teresa, over the span of a year, there's probably hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals that are interacting with this system. It's not just a couple of people up in Raleigh.
Right, right. So, I mean, basically, you're starting with right-the 100 counties that have to go through all of this, but you're also looking at candidates, committees, staff at the State Board of Elections, and you know, reporters who are trying to do reporting on maybe campaign finance, other members of the public who are interested in all of this too.
So, yeah, it's not just a few people in Raleigh in the State Board of Elections, it's a multitude of people across the state that are trying to get a better handle on this. And, you know, with it being so old and so cumbersome, there, you know, and it's a paper-dependent system, right? It just takes a lot of extra work, and there's sometimes many errors that need to be corrected. Thing reports aren't generated in time.
So, they're trying to do this and move it to a cloud base is what they're trying to do. Put it in the cloud so it'd be a lot easier to access in other areas versus just having all these troubles and all the. those errors pop up. Yeah, and I mean, for folks that have never filed a campaign finance report, whether you use the software or fill it out by hand or inside of a Word document, Teresa, you've got to fill this stuff out. Hopefully, you've done all the math correctly on all the paperwork.
You print it out, you stick it in an envelope, send it certified mail to the state board of elections to verify that it gets there. This, as you noted, this is not done just by a couple of individuals. You look at thousands of campaign committees that exist across the state of North Carolina, whether we're talking about members of the General Assembly, city council, school board, county commissioners, dog catchers, anybody that is running for political office has to file these reports either locally with their county board of election or the state board of election. And as you can imagine, it's probably pretty hard to get a treasurer that is willing to do this for these very small races, which can lead to these errors and fines and fees. It's a really convoluted process right now.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, that's why they're doing this, right? They have all these complaints, you know, on the different systems, and it has to be based on a Windows system. A lot of people have maybe Google Chromebooks now.
We have an Apple system, Apple computer or whatever, an Airbook, whatever the case may be. It's not Windows. Windows was pretty popular right when these systems came out, but they're still around. But a lot of people have other, you know, other options to go with.
So yeah, it's just a really complicated process right now. They're trying to streamline that and make that a lot easier for all those people that you mentioned. Teresa, one of the things I loved in your article, you had a list of bullet points on some of the recommendations, and one of them was to make it like a TurboTax style system. We are in tax season. Many folks have probably logged into TurboTax over the last couple of weeks.
If not, we're rapidly approaching that deadline.
So probably a good time to get on that. But you look at something very complicated like filing your taxes, all the federal and state tax codes. TurboTax and many other companies, I'll note, have cracked the code on making that as user-friendly as possible. You can literally file your taxes from your cell phone. There's no reason that the State Board of Elections here in North Carolina can't come up with some sort of comparative system.
Oh, yes, absolutely. And then, you know, they've been making that comparison to TurboTechs since the last time. I mean, you're going step. A, step B, like it guides you through each step, which is what they want these systems to be, not this long drawn out, like you got to print this out. Oh, this doesn't work, or this systems are, you know, there's so many different errors or what have you.
They want it just to go, you know. Know, make the noise, you know, and you're done, right? You know, you click through the next screen, next screen, make it very, very easy. And they said, you know, all of that should be an easy thing. And other suggestions they had, it should be adaptable to different compliance requirements, and they should have electronic signatures on reports instead of sending all that stuff in.
And also, make campaign finance data available quickly, again, with a user-friendly dashboard, something that's going to be very easy to use, that features different search capabilities, allows for different tracking. I mean, there's a plethora of suggestions that they already did come up with.
So they've made some pretty good headway. The subcommittee on getting some ideas. They've heard from the public. They've heard from different staff at the Board of Elections. They also invite the public or anybody who is interested in this to email them.
We do have the email in the article. You can find that on the website in case you want to offer suggestions. Or take a look at what they have come up with. And then that's a good idea because you want to get as many suggestions as possible and to make this. Very simple, very easy and very user friendly.
And Teresa, I guess being a little selfish here for a couple of minutes, we can talk about this from a journalism and a reporter standpoint, going through, and we often do over at our website, CarolinaJournal.com during election season, looking at campaign finance, what money was raised, what was it spent on. That is a very cumbersome task. I would argue that the layman in North Carolina is not able to really shuffle through those reports and figure out exactly what's going on. Not only will it help media outlets across the state be able to dig into this stuff, but it will help the general public who might be interested in who is donating to this candidate, who is backing them, which I would argue is very complicated to do right now. Right, right.
So, yeah, I know if we have any questions about that, we're asking people who are more familiar with that, or you know, Dr. Andy Jackson, who is on the subcommittee, who works at the John Locke Foundation, like, okay, can you help us out with these numbers? They have more experience with that and going through all that stuff because it is such a hard process. They want all this to be more transparent. That's the key.
That's the key term all along. They, you know, this is what's been happening over the past year with the State Board of Elections. And since State Auditor Dave Bullock has gained oversight due to the General Assembly passing a bill, they gained oversight for different functions, like financial functions of the Board of Elections to make things more transparent.
So people have a better idea of what's going on and not wondering if, you know, what's going on with this or is something being covered up, which we're not saying that, but to make this more streamlined, more transparent, more easy to use, more user-friendly. I mean, it is a really, really great idea that they've come up with, but there's a lot of work to do, and they're still a little ways away. I believe it's July of 2027. They want this all completed for the finance system report to be. But uh finished up.
Yeah, and that will be relevant, of course, as we head into the 2028 general election that will be taking place. Candidate filing will start in December of 2027. Primaries that will take place in early March of 2028.
So having that in place for that cycle, Teresa, you've got kind of a bullet point list of some of the things that were discussed during the meeting, plus that email address for the public, who they are accepting public comment, as you mentioned. Where can folks get those details this morning? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Teresa Opaca joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Spring is calling, weddings, patio sessions, barbecues, and you want that drink vibe without sacrificing tomorrow. That's RK Zero Proof. As the world's first zero-proof spirits brand, RK created the warm molecule, giving you the smooth kick of whiskey or tequila with zero alcohol, zero calories, zero sugar, and all the peace of mind you need to enjoy every moment. Step into the Zero Proof season at RKZeroProof.com. Good morning again.
It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. We are continuing to keep a very close eye on the high-stakes race in Rockingham and northern Guilford County. That is the race that is between Senate leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. Over the last three days or so, machine recounts have been taking place in both Guilford and Rockingham counties.
And with those recounts officially coming to an end yesterday, well, there has been no change in that race as Sam Page's narrow lead of 23 votes remains the same. According to county election officials, the recount in Guilford County resulted in a net zero change to the margin, with both candidates losing one vote. Page's overall lead, therefore, remained unchanged after the recount in Guilford County. In Rockingham County, Which wrapped up their machine recount late yesterday afternoon. There were no changes at all.
No ballots changed. No votes changed there.
So, with that, we remain with the 23-vote margin. In a statement yesterday afternoon, Patrick Sebastian, who is the post-election advisor for Sheriff Sam Page, said, Phil Berger lost this race and the recount confirmed it. His refusal to accept that reality is an insult to the voters and a waste of taxpayer dollars. It is time for Phil Berger to concede and offer his complete and total endorsement to Sam Page. The result reinforces the razor-thin gap that emerged after the county canvas process, with Page maintaining a district-wide 23-vote margin.
Phil Berger requested the recount as North Carolina law permits. Any candidate that is within 1% total of, or 1% of the total vote, do formally request a recount. That has now been made and that has played out.
However, the Berger campaign does have until late this afternoon to request what is called a partial hand-eye recount. This is also allowed under state law in this process. A candidate is allowed to go through and select this process. If this manual count takes place, which will be a sample of about 3% of the ballots throughout the district, they will do a hand-eye recount. If the manual count uncovers some sort of discrepancy between a set threshold compared to what we saw with the machine recount, then the process can expand to a full hand-eye recount, which would include every single ballot, all 26,000 plus votes in the contest.
We will be keeping a close eye on that throughout the day. We'll have continued breaking news and coverage of that over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Friday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 WBT.
Uh
