CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrat Dan McCready conceded to Republican Mark Harris in the race for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District on Wednesday evening.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready each had 49 percent of the vote. As of 6 p.m., Harris was credited with 138,338 votes while McCready had 136,478, giving Harris a slight edge of 1,860 votes.
"We always knew this race would be close, and sure enough, it's really down to the wire," said a spokesman for McCready on election night. "The results are still coming in, and we want to make sure every vote is counted."
Meanwhile, Harris claimed victory while speaking to supporters around midnight.
"Without the votes and the support of so many people, we wouldn't be here celebrating this great victory," said Harris. "As you look at the board, you can see where we stand tonight."
In North Carolina's 13th Congressional District, Republican Ted Budd had 52 percent of the vote. Democrat Kathy Manning had 46 percent.
Around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC News projected incumbent Republican Henry McMaster won the South Carolina gubernatorial race against Democrat James Smith. Smith conceded to McMaster around 10:30 p.m. McMaster spoke to supporters about twenty minutes later.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement had an issue around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when incomplete absentee data from several counties showed up on its website. The problem was fixed about ten minutes later.
At least two precincts stayed open past 7:30 p.m. in North Carolina due to voting problems.
In Gaston County, a fire alarm earlier in the day caused the Ashbrook precinct to stay open until 7:50 p.m. In Columbus County, the polls didn't close until 9:20 p.m. at the South Williams precinct because voting officials didn't have a ballot style on hand when they opened the doors.
Before the sun was up, long lines began forming at voting precincts across the Carolinas. The weather caused the most problems with downpours slowing down some precincts.
In York County, a calibration issue on a machine was investigated at Precinct 89. A woman complained her vote wasn't being recorded correctly Officials sent a tech out to recalibrate the machines, and we're told there were no other complaints.
High humidity made it difficult for paper ballots to be fed through tabulators at 20 precincts in Wake County; that problem has since been fixed.
The State Elections Board said all votes will be counted, but not everyone is so confident.
"I have doubts about it if it's going to be counted eventually like they say," said Wake County voter Bishop Williams Jr.
"When they carry them downtown, they will run them through a high-speed counter, and all of them will be counted at that time," said chief precinct judge Linda Marshall.
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. in North Carolina and 7 p.m. in South Carolina.
