We spend a lot of time talking about the races for president, governor, and state superintendent of public instruction. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, won reelection, and Catherine Truitt, a Republican, won election to state superintendent of public instruction. As of Nov. 5 at 9 a.m., the winner of the presidential race in North Carolina has not been called.
But for K-12 school districts and community colleges in North Carolina, school board and county commission elections matter a lot. School board members make important decisions about things like operating budgets and curriculum, and more recently, school reopening plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. County commissioners are responsible for the appropriation of local funds.
So, let’s take a look at how all of these races broke down county-by-county. These results are unofficial and include data from the State Board of Elections website as of Nov. 5, 2020. This data does not include the outstanding absentee ballots and the provisional ballots that will be added to the data late next week.
In cases where the races for school board and county commission were close, this map includes the names of those with the most ballots cast as of Nov. 5. All county commission elections are partisan, and some school board elections are partisan — those races will show a party affiliation next to each name.
Some of the margins for school board and county commissioners were razor-thin. For example, in the race for Weldon City School Board in Halifax County, Donna Belfield Harrison secured the third of three available seats on the board by receiving just 16 more votes than Hugh C. Credle. Every vote matters.
Questions or feedback on this map? Email me at asorrells@ednc.org.
