November 22, 2016

Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has lost the race to stay in office to his Democratic challenger Roy Cooper, but he is apparently the only one who doesn't know it yet.

After days of refusing to concede, failed appeals to local election boards, and more, McCrory has now called for a recount, even as he trails by approximately 6800 votes.

McCrory is, of course, relying on allegations of voter fraud to bolster his claim. Specifically, his complaint centers around same-day registration, as ABC News 11 reports.

McCrory's campaign manager, Russell Peck, was quite specific. "With many outstanding votes yet to be counted for the first time, legal challenges, ballot protests and voter fraud allegations, we must keep open the ability to allow the established recount process to ensure every legal vote is counted properly."

According to the same report, the billionaire-backed Civitas Foundation is involving themselves in the fight as well. Civitas President Francis De Luca filed a complaint alleging that same-day registrations can't be verified properly under state law and should therefore invalidate the votes of thousands.

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina GOP was even more specific, offering this retort. "Roy Cooper thinks he's the Governor-elect of what? The voting dead?"

That's a common cry amongst conservatives. Some states count the votes cast by people who died before the election, provided their votes were received before Election Day. North Carolina is not one of those, and election boards have disqualified several ballots from voters who died before Election Day.

But if McCrory wants a recount, let's recount the whole state, given the thin margin Trump leads by in the state. If not, then he should stand down and give it up rather than costing the state millions to recount the votes for one single office only.

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