BOONE, N.C. — Rep. Virginia Foxx said Friday she has asked for congressional monitors to watch the continuing count in North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, where Democrat Chuck Hubbard led by 99 votes on election night.
State elections board figures listed Hubbard at 139,034 and Foxx at 138,935 on election night. Officials have called the contest too close to certify while provisional ballots are still being reviewed.
Foxx, who has represented the district for 11 terms, said in a public statement that the tally has not stopped and is moving under state law. She said she wants nonpartisan monitors on hand so every legal ballot is reviewed in a consistent, thorough way, and that the process and election officials—not anything else—will decide the outcome.
A 2024 federal statute requires states to let designated congressional staff watch voting, ballot handling and tabulation in federal contests. Those monitors are House or Senate aides chosen on paper by leaders of the House administration committee or the matching Senate panel. U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin chairs the House committee. Staff members may volunteer, the committee covers travel for Republican observers, and the notes they take can become a record if the result is later contested.
Districtwide, as many as 3,130 provisionals were submitted, 344 of them in Watauga County. Guilford County logged 1,606 such ballots, though only a portion apply here because the district covers just part of that county. Watauga election officials are scheduled to examine those ballots at 1 p.m. on Nov. 10, and the county canvass is set for Nov. 13.
Election officials also said Thursday that Forsyth and Rockingham counties will visually check paper ballots against machine totals on Monday. The Hubbard campaign did not immediately issue a comment on the request for monitors.
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