ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828NewsNow) — The Buncombe County Board of Elections has officially certified the 2026 General Election midterm results, following the completion of the canvass.

The Board announced in a Nov. 13 news release that the canvass, which is the official process of determining whether all the votes have been counted and tabulated correctly, has been completed.

“The work that goes into certifying an election is labor intensive and important. Our staff worked tirelessly,” said Election Services Director Corinne Duncan in the release. “The process continues to go more and more smoothly each election.”

In total, 97,003 ballots were cast during Early Voting, 30,318 on Election Day, Nov. 3, 4,546 via absentee by mail, and 552 provisionals. Nearly 60% of eligible voters in Buncombe County voted in this election casting 132,419 ballots in total, the release said.

The Board met at 11 a.m. on Nov. 13 to review administrative challenges, present the audits for all voting types, and to inspect results before certifying. For close elections, the canvass period is especially important, the Board said in the release. During this time, election officials count timely absentee ballots and research provisional ballots. These votes are added to the unofficial results that were released on Election night.  

Provisional ballots cast during the election were researched to determine voter eligibility during canvass. Voters may have voted provisionally if they didn’t have photo ID, if there are questions about registration, or if they went to an incorrect polling location. Across the county, 912 provisional ballots were cast, and of those, 452 were fully approved and 100 were partially approved and were added to the unofficial results.

The Board said that absentee ballots made up 3.4% of the total votes with 5,546 mail-in ballots received before the Election Day deadline. Of those, 214 absentee ballots were disallowed, including 93 received after the deadline. Due to a 2023 change in North Carolina election law, ballots received after 7:30 p.m. on Election Day cannot be counted regardless of the postmark.

As part of the after-election canvass period, Buncombe County Elections Services also completed the official sample audit on Monday, Nov. 9. Two precincts, 42.1 Emma Elementary School and 28.1 Covenant Reformed Presbyterian, were randomly selected by North Carolina State Board of Elections. Required by state law, the sample audit ensures the accuracy of the machine-counted results of paper ballots. The hand tally matched the machine counts for both precincts, the release said.