Welcome to the INDY’s Election Day live blog, part 2! There are, as of this writing, approximately 240 minutes until polls close in North Carolina and our long national nightmare finally (hopefully?) comes to an end.

Throughout the day, the INDY will have a team of reporters out of the streets of the Triangle, talking to voters, looking into reports of election weirdness, and generally being on the lookout for any news that breaks. As they report in, I’ll be updating this blog. (And with more frequency later in the day, after we put this week’s newspaper to bed; one of the problems with being weekly is that we’re going to send this week’s edition to the printer this afternoon without knowing how things turned out.) But you can also follow along on the INDY’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds, which will likewise be updated with interviews and commentary.

Our team comprises Raleigh bureau chief Ken Fine (hereafter referred to by his initials, KF), staff writers Lauren Horsch (LH) and Paul Blest (PB), food editor Victoria Bouloubasis (VB), and intern Sara Kiley Watson (SKW). I, Jeffrey Billman, will be your ringmaster.

Let’s dig in:

9:45 p.m.: I have basically given up updating this blog. Too on edge. Legit can’t believe what I am seeing.

9:04 p.m.:


7:33 p.m.: With about 25 percent in, Trump is up 51–46. Hillary is up 63–33 in Wake. No votes from Durham yet. In Orange: 78–19 HRC.

7:29 p.m.: As you await the N.C. results, behold the cuteness.


7:19 p.m.: Except for the couple of counties that got extensions, North Carolina polls will close in ten minutes. We will show results as soon as they come in.

6:59 p.m.


6:42 p.m.: While we wait on the final word from the NCSBE, here is Victoria’s interview with a poll volunteer.

6:28 p.m.: Lauren Horsch is at the NCSBE meeting that’s debating keeping Durham County’s polls open an extra ninety minutes. She tweets:

5:54 p.m.: ABC News reporting on the exit-poll demographics in North Carolina:

Nonwhites: In preliminary exit poll results this year, 30 percent of voters are nonwhites, with 21 percent blacks, both close to their levels in 2012, 30 and 23 percent, respectively. These estimates can change as data on late-day voters comes in, so check back.

Non-college whites: One of Trump’s strongest groups, non-college whites accounted for 37 percent of voters in 2012, more than the share of minorities. Tonight, in North Carolina, preliminary exit poll results suggest they may fall short of their 2012 numbers; the current estimate is 32 percent, vs. 38 percent college-educated whites. In both 2012 and 2008, non-college whites outnumbered college-educated whites; this could flip this year.

[…]

Party ID: Early results show Democrats outnumbering Republicans by 8 points, 38 to 30 percent, compared to a 6-point advantage for Democrats in 2012. If this ratio holds, it would be the lowest turnout among Republicans in exit poll data back to 1984.

HB2: Sixty-six percent of North Carolina voters say they oppose the so-called “bathroom law,” while just 29 percent support it.

And that’s why the Trump campaign has “jitters” about North Carolina.

5:45 p.m.: From FiveThirtyEight’s live blog.


5:35 p.m.:


5:31 p.m.: From intern Melissa Cordell:
Carmen Coley let the Orange County Democratic Party use her house as a base for volunteers and fellows/interns for. She worked the polls at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

“The work that the coordinated campaign at my house has been extraordinary. I have been amazed by the constant parade in and out of volunteers, canvassers, phone bankers—folks are driving out to High Point, Greensboro, Oxford, and you know, all over the place, knocking on doors. It’s been extraordinary to be a part of it. I think that we’re going to see some really amazing results in this area because of it. As of eleven a.m., this precinct had sixteen hundred out of twenty-two hundred registered voters vote. We have a tremendously large student population in this area, and I think it’s very exciting to know we have sixteen hundred voters here. it’s been a lot of young and enthusiastic voters out.”

5:25 p.m.: Oh good God no.
Robby Mook is Clinton’s campaign manager.

5:23 p.m.: Jim Acosta on CNN reporting that Republicans are concerned about Pennsylvania and North Carolina. “There are some jitters,” he says. A Trump spokesman is saying that’s not the case.

5:22 p.m.:


4:58: The Atlantic’s David A. Graham—a Durham resident—talked to Roy Cooper this morning. Here’s his dispatch, part of The Atlantic’s live blog:

Cooper looks like he came straight from central casting to play the part of governor, the kind of guy who seems like he was born in a sport coat and whose hair is always perfect; now he’s trying to claim the role. He was at Durham’s Southern High School late Tuesday morning, looking perfectly pressed even though he’d been out late at Hillary Clinton’s midnight rally in Raleigh and up early to campaign. “I feel great,” he told me. “I think it’s very positive for our state. I think people are ready for change here in North Carolina and ready to tell the rest of the country who we really are.”

Telling the rest of the country who we really are has been Democrats’ code word for House Bill 2, the controversial “bathroom bill” passed this spring that requires that transgender people use the bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. It also bans LGBT non-discrimination ordinances and prohibits living wages. Cooper’s advertisements have focused heavily on education, but much of the media coverage of the race has focused on HB2. He blamed McCrory for that.

4:45 p.m.:


4:30 p.m.: SKW has been digging around problems identified by @BullCityVa, a poll observer in the Orange County precinct at Central Elementary School this morning, which we noted in our previous live blog. She files this report:

The first incident @BullCityVA tweeted about was was an African-American man not getting to vote and leaving after being skipped three times, saying, “This is bullshit.” Her twitter feed says that the man had been waiting for forty minutes, and she was told she was “enticing” the man by suggesting he use a provisional ballot.

She also tweeted that several students were scammed by a voter registration group and were unable to vote.

Another tweet reads: “One black woman has been voting for 16 years here, same precinct, every election. Not on the roll. She lives on same street as precinct.” Eventually, she tweeted that the woman was able to vote.

She stopped tweeting for the rest of her shift, but picked up again at 2:24 p.m. Her updates says that, at around 10 a.m., a woman was turned away because she was asked for her ID and did not return before the end of her shift. She tweeted that by 11 a.m., about 5 percent of voters were able to vote.


BullCityVA has tweeted that the Clinton campaign has tried to reach out to her through three phone calls, two texts, and by contacting two people who know her.

Tracy Ream, director of the Orange County Board of Elections, says that the only issues in Orange County had been that the Cedar Grove polling place had difficulties with their printers, which was resolved in the morning.

4:15 p.m.: Victoria files this report:

At the polls today, we caught wind of a campaign slip that has made some local Latino voters feel slighted by their candidates. While the national Democratic Party has done everything it can to entice Hispanics this election—using Tim Kaine’s missionary Spanish, for example—there’s a glaring lack of Spanish-language information on the N.C. Democratic Party’s website. NCDP communications director Dave Miranda told us he “doesn’t know” where the materials are. He wouldn’t immediately confirm that they exist, and he suggested we wait for an email response.

Latinos who have already voted in North Carolina have boosted their share of turnout since 2012. Picking up NCDP’s apparent slack, a nonpartisan North Carolina voter guide in Spanish can be found at ncvoter.org. It is provided by Democracy Now NC, Common Cause, and El Pueblo.

4:01 p.m.: I have no idea if this newfangled Votecastr thing Slate is doing worth a damn, but right now it shows Clinton winning basically everything.


3:41 p.m.: The N.C. Democratic Party sent out the following press release about reports of missing registrations:

“Throughout the morning, we have seen occasional reports regarding what appears to be a small number of missing registrations. These registrations are from voters who registered through the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

“We want to be 100 percent clear: If you are a North Carolina voter and your registration is one of the few that is missing, you have the right to use a provisional ballot and absolutely may not be turned away. Any North Carolina voter who is turned away or refused a provisional ballot should contact authorities immediately.

“If you have any questions, please contact North Carolina Democratic Party Voter Protection Hotline at (919) 432-4419.” – The North Carolina Democratic Party

3:28 p.m.:


3:27 p.m.: Heroes.


3:24 p.m.: CNN is pouring cold water on Trump’s claim—to Fox News—that people who vote Republican are seeing their ballots switch to Democratic. Tl;dr: Trump is making shit up. Shocking.