Early Voting In North Carolina | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Hour number three, the. Pete Callender Show, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig, host of the Carolina Journal NewsHour and the Nick Craig Show. Sitting in for Pete on this Friday, 704-570-1079 is our studio hotline. That is where you can call or text, be part of this final hour of the program as early voting begins. is set to wrap up across the state of North Carolina tomorrow afternoon. Three o'clock, polls will close across the state. There will be no early voting on Sunday, no early voting on Monday, and then 13 hours of voting, 6.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. on Election Day, so a very pivotal couple of days here in North Carolina, to walk us through the more than 2.2 million individuals that have voted already across the state. It's my pleasure to welcome Ryan Bonifay, who is the Senior Director of Data and Analytics at Cold Spark, to the Pete Callender Show this afternoon. Ryan, thanks for the time. You have been posting some unbelievable data on your Twitter account about North Carolina's elections. Give us the top lines, if you would. Thanks for having me on, Nick. So at the top line, we're looking at a shit the electorate versus 2022 on the early voting side. Now, I want to preface this. We're looking at early voting numbers. Early voting numbers are not entirely indicative of where the electorate is going to be ending after Election Day. But we're looking at Democrats having a pretty substantial lead right now, looking at a lead of about 300,000 votes. Cast. And when you put unaffiliated voters kind of into their... party bucket based on the primaries they participate in. That kind of expands up to 350,000. So you have a large dim lead heading into Election Day, and that is going to lead to a pretty competitive, not just on statewide races, but it's going to be extremely competitive when it comes to congressional races, state house races, and state senate races. Yeah, and we know that the power of the 170 members of the North Carolina General Assembly has been a large topic of discussion over the last couple of days. So we talk about that 350,000 vote advantage. Again, we still have all of the rest of today and tomorrow for early voting. Ryan, you look at those first few days of early voting here back a little more than two weeks ago. I mean, it seems like Democrats were just shot out of a cannon. They showed up in insane numbers over those first few days. Yes, and that kind of early loading that you had with Democratic voters has led to a pretty sharp movement towards the mean. Now, we're still not there yet entirely for GOP voters, but it is shrinking consistently and much faster than it has in past elections because of how large that lead Democrats got off to in the first couple of days. As we look at the percentages right now, and I'll note for our audience, this does not include any of the data from today, Friday. We won't get that until around 5.30 coming up tomorrow morning. But as of the close of voting on Thursday, the percentages break down like this. 39.3% of all ballots cast during early voting are those that are registered as Democrats. 34.6% registered as unaffiliated. And 25.9% registered as Republicans. That 25% number, Ryan, is much higher than it was even just a week and a half ago, where Republicans were in 18 or 19 percent. So they've made some gains, but the million-dollar question, can they dig out of this major hole that they find themselves in right now? They absolutely can. So when you look at what is left to come in, You have a lot of Election Day voters who are Republicans who have yet to cast a ballot. If you look at those who voted on Election Day in 2022 who have yet to vote, you're looking at a Republican advantage with those voters by almost 225,000 voters. And those unaffiliated voters who are left to vote skew more Republicans than they do Democrats. So that is a good bucket of voters left to kind of tighten this up not only in the early voting, but on election day. Yeah, and that's going to be what's interesting to watch. Have you added the time to dig into the propensity of these voters? I've had the opportunity to do just a little bit of analysis on this. And to the credit of the Democrats, Ryan, they seem to be doing a pretty good job at turning out some of these lower propensity voters, traditionally those that do not vote in a midterm election. And maybe that's part of their major advantage they have right now. Yeah, so when looking at the voters and how they voted in the last four elections, looking at 24, 22, 20, and 18. you're looking at Democrats increasing numbers for 22 across the board. Republicans have yet to see that come out with voters who are two of four, one of four, and voters who have not voted before. You're not seeing them come out yet. That is going to be a crucial thing that Republicans have to do is get those lower-engaged voters out to vote. Democrats have done that. It is something we just have to do on our side. Yeah, we're going to continue to follow that through the remainder of today and on Saturday. 2024 obviously was a presidential election, so you don't want to draw a whole lot of analogy to what went on there. But Ryan, there was a major push, and in large part it was led by President Donald Trump and the GOP, this Bank Your Vote initiative. And we saw not only here in North Carolina, but across the rest of the nation in 2024, Republicans really took up early voting in large part, probably due to some of that messaging. We don't have that this year. Do you suspect that a lot of those voters that may have been convinced to vote early in 2024 will go back to their traditional voting habits, which has always historically been election day? Yes, and I think you also had in 24 a pretty large enthusiasm, a push on the GOP side to get those voters out early. If you're super enthusiastic to go vote, you are more likely to go out there the first chance you get to go vote. It is getting those kind of late deciders, getting those not as super enthusiastic but still– wanting to vote our way, getting them out to vote, that'll make up the difference. And you're going to have, if you're looking at 22 versus how people voted, you have more Election Day voters who have not, who did, more Election Day voters from 22 who have not voted versus Election Day voters who voted in 24 who have not voted. So that is a big group of people to get out. And if they're reverting back to their previous activity and how they used to vote, that is where we'll see Republicans make up the gap. Yeah. And historically, we have seen that in North Carolina. Let me throw this at you because this has been something interesting that I've been keeping an eye on as well as, Ryan, there's only certain pool of voters that you can pull from. And what a lot of folks have been asking is, have the Democrats essentially front-loaded all of their votes into early voting as the days have gone on? We have 17 days of early voting here across North Carolina. To the Democrats' credit, they have continued having their voters turn out over the last two and a half weeks. Does that spigot ever turn off? And what does it kind of look like as we transition towards Election Day? So I don't think that they have eaten into their Election Day margin at a significantly higher rate than Republicans have. If you look at the Election Day voters who voted in 22, 131,000 of them are Republicans who voted early so far. 146,000 are Democrats who voted early so far. So that gap is not super large. But the big gap is what you're looking at, voters who did not vote in 2022. Democrats are leading that group by nearly 125,000 voters. Us getting our low-propensity voters out will shrink that gap. But it is– I do not think that the front-loading is as pronounced based on the past– voting activity of these voters. So yes, there's a little front voting because of the enthusiasm, but not as large as it may seem, seeing the early voters that have come in. Brian, let me close out on this. We have seen what was anticipated to be potentially the most expensive, most competitive Senate race in the United States coming up here in 2026 was expected to be this race between Roy Cooper and Michael Watley here in North Carolina that has largely not materialized. Most polling averages still show this close to a double-digit lead for the former eight-year governor here in North Carolina. Does that play into potentially some of these big-time gains that we're seeing from Democrats during early voting? I think that and the mix of the national environment are playing into the increase in Democratic participation. and enthusiasm right now. And I think that it also is playing in a little bit to the deadening of Republican enthusiasm. When you don't have a A ticket that is really driving turnout across the state, that is something you're going to see kind of fall off with your less enthusiastic voters. Really driving turnout across the state, that is something you're going to see kind of fall off with your less enthusiastic voters. There is a gap that has to be made up. I think, you know, I've known Michael Wildey for a long time. I think he's run as good of a campaign as he could have run. But without the investment that you are typically used to seeing in North Carolina for these top-of-the-ticket races, that kind of engagement with low-intensity voters is not happening. Yeah, it's very tough to do. Ryan, your analysis is absolutely fantastic. You have been posting up a storm on social media over the last couple of days. How can folks stay in touch with you through the remainder of this election cycle? Yeah, if you want to follow me on X, you can follow me at Rbonify. That's R-B-O-N-I-F-Y. Ryan, thank you so much for the insight. Greatly appreciated. Thank you, Nick. Appreciate his time. Ryan Bonifay joining us here on the Pete Counter show, walking through some of these details of early voting across the state. Have you been out there? Have you been out at early voting? Did you vote earlier? Are you waiting until election day? Love to hear from you. 704-570-1079 is our studio hotline. You can call or text, be part of the program. I'm Nick Craig, host of the Carolina Journal NewsHour and the Nick Craig Show, sitting in for Pete Counter. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events, captured forever to pass down to future generations. 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Welcome back to the Pete Callender Show, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT 704-570-1079 is our studio hotline as we continue with North Carolina's very lengthy, in many cases, you could argue the lengthiest in the country in terms of in-person early voting. Things are set to wrap up tomorrow afternoon. Early voting will close at three o'clock across the entirety of North Carolina. We will see no early voting on Sunday or Monday, and then literally thousands of voting locations will be open starting Tuesday morning at 6.30. Everything will wrap up with early voting on Election Day at 7.30 p.m., and then we will watch election results begin to pour in. We will have coverage of that, our election night coverage, with Bo Thompson and Beth Troutman kicks off at 6 p.m. On Tuesday evening. The Brett Winter Bowl will take over at 10, and we'll have you through the evening. And I'll be back with you very early Wednesday morning, starting at 5 a.m. with the entire Carolina Journal team to break down what exactly happened, what didn't happen in these highly important midterm elections coming up here in North Carolina. We're looking at a couple of very close congressional races. North Carolina's first congressional district, where Lori Buckout, the Republican, is attempting to unseat current Democrat Congressman Don Davis. That's up in the northeastern half of North Carolina. Much of that district borders portions of southern Virginia. And then, of course, out west, North Carolina's 11th congressional district, where we saw a lot of things change there over the last. 60 days or so. A House Ethics Committee into Congressman Chuck Edwards and allegations of inappropriate activity. with young female staffers in his office, caused him to randomly, well, I shouldn't say randomly, but at 3.30 in the morning, take to his social media accounts back about two months ago, announcing that he would be dropping out of the re-election bid, causing Republicans in North Carolina's 11th congressional district to have to scramble to find a replacement. They have decided on Representative Jennifer Bulkham of Henderson County. She currently a member of the North Carolina General Assembly to fill that seat and essentially run a two-month campaign, which is tough. She's going up against Jamie Ager, who is a very well-funded guy that pretends to be a moderate out in Western North Carolina, an area that has traditionally been very ruby red. However, due to the last-minute change of candidates and literally millions of dollars to the credit of Jamie Ager that he has been able to raise, that looks like a seat that six months ago, if you had said, hey, it's going to be a close race out in North Carolina's 11th congressional. District, most folks would laugh at you and say, sure, what else? What have we got? Are you on a bridge to sell me somewhere? I mean, wouldn't have even seemed plausible or probable back six months ago, but with some of these last-minute developments and Chuck Edwards dropping out of the race unexpectedly. It has really turned that contest upside down and going to make it very tough for Republicans to hold on to that seat and try and unseat in North Carolina's first congressional district. And then, of course, the power of the North Carolina General Assembly. I mean, that's really what we're going to be tracking over the next couple of days and depending on what those results end up looking like, 2027, folks, could be a very interesting year in our state capitol. Depending on what ends up happening Tuesday night into the very early hours of Wednesday morning, we could see something happen in Raleigh that unless you've lived in North Carolina for more than 15 years, and I know there's a lot of folks that have been and have moved into the state over the last five or 10 years, it's something that we haven't experienced. And that would be split control of the North Carolina General Assembly. The math for Democrats to flip the North Carolina Senate seems, for all intents and purposes... impossible i don't like to speak in absolutes as it relates to elections they're very unique they're very dynamic it's hard to say for certain that this is absolutely going to happen or that there's no chance that something like this happens however just based on simple probabilities in math, flipping the Senate from Republican to Democrat would seem very, very hard to do for Democrats. On the other hand, the North Carolina House is very much susceptible. And we've got a couple of races here in North Carolina. We'll be joined by Andrew Pomerantz from carolinajournal.com coming up after the bottom of the hour to talk about three very important races in the North Carolina General Assembly. two of them in Wake County, another one in Mecklenburg County that could very much decide what that power is going to look like for Republicans moving forward. Do they contain and do they remain with their majorities that they've had and enjoyed since 2010? And that's going to be the million dollar question. We know that the governor is obviously not up for reelection this year. We'll see him on a ballot in 2028. So we can say for certain, that there will remain a Democrat in the governor's mansion. I feel very confident in saying that Republicans will maintain control of the North Carolina Senate. The House, on the other hand, that's kind of a coin flip right now. I've been tracking and keeping an eye on the betting markets over the last couple of weeks. And just in the last few days, we have seen, at least on Kalshi, one of these betting markets, the probability of Democrats becoming the majority party with 61 votes in the North Carolina House now is up to 56%. Looking at the live betting markets right now, Democrats chances, according to Kalshi, 56 percent, the Republican Party, just thirty nine percent. And so that's going to be very interesting to watch. We'll chat with Andrew Pomerantz from Carolina Journal dot com coming up on that here in just a couple of minutes. I'm Nick Craig, host of the Carolina Journal News Hour and the Nick Craig show. Pleasure to be sitting in for Pete Callen or this afternoon. All right. Real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. Welcome back to the Pete Callender Show, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT 70457. 1079 is our studio hotline that is where you can call or text as we keep an eye on early voting totals and look at forward to what election day could bring here across the state of north carolina we head on over to our wbt hotline we say good afternoon to andrew pomerantz From CarolinaJournal.com, Andrew, the big rage over the last couple of days has been the possibility of Democrats flipping the North Carolina House. You've really honed in on a couple of races, two in Wake County, one in Mecklenburg County. Walk us through that. Yeah. Hey, Nick. Thank you for having me on with you this afternoon. It's an interesting time in North Carolina politics here just a couple of days out before the election. Motivations are coming across the finish line here with folks who really think that the North Carolina House and Senate may be up for grabs this year. In the first time since 2010, right, as Democrats look to gain majorities in either body and break what is currently a supermajority in the state Senate. And there are a number of races, like you said, both in Wake and Mecklenburg counties that are going to be really crucial to Democrats' hopes to maintain a majority in either of these bodies or gain a majority in either of these bodies, right? And those include House District 35 and 36 in Wake County. Tricia Coffin's seat outside in Mecklenburg County seats that historically, you know, as urban crawl happens and as folks, cities like Charlotte and Wake get so much larger, you know, forces folks into more suburban districts. And these are districts that are really close, have been close for years, and in a Democratic strong year could hear flip for the first time in a while. According to the 2026 Civitas Partisan Index, there's about 22 races from my count, Andrew, that are either within a couple of points, either Republican 1, Republican 2, or Democrat 1, Democrat 2, that seem like they could be up for grabs. Democrats would need 12 of those to get to that 61 vote threshold to have the majority. How likely does that seem in your vantage point from right now? Yeah, right. And of those 22 races, really, we're looking at 12 or 13 that are truly toss-ups here. If Democrats are going to gain a majority in the House, North Carolina House in particular, it's not going to be a seven or eight seat majority. It's going to be a two or three seat. And, you know, of those 22 races, with only 13 being up for grabs here, I mean, I heard the analogy the other day, you know, they're going to have to pitch a perfect game. right, to win back, especially the Senate, but the House as well. You know, there's only a couple seats where they can make mistakes. And, you know, we look at races in Guilford County where the Democratic candidate there has received flack for past comments online comparing, you know, saying Trump supporters, you know, need to be killed and something like the Holocaust, right? And so races like that, they cannot afford to miss on. And there's been a few misses across the board this year for Democrats that's making this map tougher every day. And despite that, you know, early voting members are skewing towards Democrats right now as turnout has been high this year, both amongst Democrats and independents. You know, we've talked about for months now that Republicans may have a, you know, a turnout issue based on just, you know, how excited they are, how motivated they are to get out to the poll elections this year and vote. And so it'll be interesting to see of those couple of swingy districts that Democrats are going to need to win, whether they're able to win the 11 or 12 that are necessary here to flip that majority. And I'm talking to folks across the board and listening these last couple of days. You know, it sounds like nine may be in play more than 11 or 12. Right. Looking at maybe a 61, 59 majority or something closer to a 60, 60. I would be remiss if I said anything over 62 or 63. I don't see it being in the cards this year for Democrats in the House. But prettier things are happening. Early voting numbers still come in and they're changing by the day. It'll be interesting to see once we have returns for tomorrow. Last day of early voting at three o'clock. Couldn't have summed it up better myself, Andrew. Crazier things have happened. And as we know here in North Carolina politics over the last 15 or 20 years, crazy things. Have in fact happened. Let's not necessarily get into whether the Republicans will keep the majority or not. But what we can say for certain is that the majority will be shrunk pretty significantly right now. They are just one vote shy of that super majority threshold. We have seen previous Democrats like Carla Cunningham from Mecklenburg County, who's now an unaffiliated after Josh Stein. and Democrats essentially forced her out of her own primary back in March. That will not be the case when we flip the counter over to 2027 and new lawmakers are sworn in, and regardless of whether the Republicans have the majority or not, it's going to be a very interesting year in Raleigh, is it not? Absolutely, right, and Republicans have had, you know, almost super majorities in both chambers now since 2010, you know, missing them in one by another since then, but With that supermajority, they've been able to pass large legislative packages without much Democratic support, especially this past year with Representative Carla Cunningham and Majeeb out of Mecklenburg County as well, right? Having been these independent voters after they were defeated in their primaries this year, they've been able to rely on them to override vetoes on things like ICE enforcement and potential budget overrides, right? that will no longer be the case. And so when you're talking about a slimmer majority, you talk about having to work bipartisanly, especially with a Democrat in the governor's mansion for the next several years, right? His power in January is going to increase tenfold, and he's going to have real say no matter if it is a 61-59 or a 67-53, right? I mean, his majority, as soon as you shrink away from that supermajority veto override capacity, increases tenfold. And so It'll be interesting to see how Governor Josh Stein decides to wield that veto power we've seen in states like Virginia. When governors feel empowered, they go to the very far end and they veto hundreds of pieces of legislation every year. I don't necessarily think we'll see that with Governor Stein and his record on trying to ride kind of a moderate position here. He's not chosen to override many pieces of legislation since he's become governor. And so It'll be interesting to see. And Republicans are going to have a hard time passing policy, right? This is going to be a real challenge and I think a test for incoming brand new Speaker Pro Tem in the Senate and also Speaker Hall to see if he really has the chops here to whip enough votes to pass major pieces of legislation through. Even though we just spent a lot of time, for those that are listeners of the Carolina Journal News Hour, we spent months in the middle of this year talking about budget negotiations ongoing in Raleigh. That stuff was supposed to be handled the previous year that did not come to fruition yesterday. As soon as we click the counter over to 2027, Andrew, new lawmakers are sworn in. We're going to be already talking about a new biennium budget. That should be fascinating to watch with these much smaller majorities in all likelihood that Republicans will have. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, some of these larger policy priorities that Republicans have been able to push for years, whether that be tax cuts or voter ID legislation or things that we're seeing come up in amendments on the ballot this November. Those type of policies are not going to be able to move through a General Assembly that is more evenly split, right? And so it'll be interesting to see, you know, how aggressive Speaker Hall is in pushing his own priorities. You know, is a Minority Leader Reeves in a tape body, you know, someone who is at the negotiation table with the budget from day one representing Democrats and Governor Josh Stein's positions? And so, you know, it'll be an interesting test to see. You know, it took us, like you mentioned, over two years to get a buy-in in budget. This year, I can't imagine we'll be any quicker. when Republicans lose a straight majority here, or if they have a tighter majority outside that supermajority veto number, right? And so it'll be interesting to see. I think it'll cause a lot of challenges and maybe, you know, a lame duck legislature. I've heard it mentioned, you know, a legislature that isn't able to do a lot over the next couple of years until one party or another either wins the governor's mansion back or, you know, becomes in the majority party. Yeah. And this is not uncharted territory by any stretch of the imagination, but for those that have not lived in North Carolina prior to 2010. This is something that they have not seen since Republicans took control of that legislature. Then after more than 100 years, Carolina prior to 2010, this is something that they have not seen since Republicans took control of that legislature. Then after more than 100 years of Democrat control, Andrew, there's going to be a lot to do analysis on as we transition into Tuesday evening and into the middle and latter parts of next week. How can folks keep up to date with all that across the state? Yeah, they can follow us on social media at Carolina Journal or they can read along at the carolinajournal.com. We'll also be keeping you up to date with that each and every weekday morning right here on WBT 5 a.m. It is the Carolina Journal News Hour. Andrew Pomerantz, a frequent guest on that. Andrew, thanks for the time. Enjoy the weekend. We'll chat early next week. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Andrew Pomerantz, Carolina journal.com joins us this afternoon on the Pete calendar show. Charlotte's FM news talk. 107.9 FM WBT. I'm Nick Craig sitting in for Pete. Welcome back to the Pete counter show. Charlotte's FM news talk. One Oh 7.9 FM WBT 7 0 4 5 7 0 1 0 7 9 is our studio hotline. If you want to jump in here on the final few minutes of the program, as we kind of do an overall look as today is the final weekday ahead of early voting here in North Carolina, that wraps up Saturday afternoon at three o'clock. As I've noted, there's no early voting on Sunday or Monday. And then all eyes will go ahead to regular Election Day locations, thousands of them across the state of North Carolina as we transition into Tuesday. Now, in terms of the election results and returns, kind of a rough timeline, at least as I understand it right now. Polls on Election Day close at 7.30 p.m. And so shortly after that, we will begin the process of getting the absentee by mail and early voting results that will begin the process of being uploaded to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. And so that will likely happen first. It's not the same necessarily in every county, and sometimes there's some hiccups with getting everything uploaded due to literally 100 counties all trying to send data up to the state at the same time for it to be displayed on the State Board of Elections website. But That's kind of the rough timeline, probably somewhere in the 8 o'clock, maybe even 745 as we get into the 8 o'clock hour on Tuesday evening. That's when we'll get that early vote dump. And that's going to be fascinating to watch. As we've already talked about throughout this final hour of the show here on this Friday, Democrats are going to have a major lead when those first tallies hit the North Carolina State Board of Elections. And in all likelihood, you will be talking about major margins, hundreds of thousands of votes with absentee by mail and the early voting totals. Obviously, depending on what happens today and tomorrow, it seems unlikely that Republicans are going to turn out 100 or 150,000 voters today and tomorrow, just based on what we've seen over the last couple of days. But it's plausible. It's probable. Not necessarily probable, but it is plausible. So that's what we'll see first. And then as you get deeper into the eight o'clock hour Tuesday evening, that is when election day precincts will begin the process of being uploaded. And that process takes a while because a flash drive that is taken from the DS 200 tabulation machine. that sits at the early voting location that has to be physically delivered to the County board of election office. And especially in a lot of these larger counties and in more rural areas of North Carolina, you can be talking about by the time the voting closes at seven 30, obviously, if you're in line, you stay in line and you're able to vote, but there's a process of shutting down the voting location that can take as long as 25 or 30 minutes to And then depending on where the location is, you could be talking about a 30 or 40 minute drive to the board of election center, if not even longer. And that is not, you know, it's that period of time that it takes to physically drive to that location to deliver the flash drive and have it uploaded to the state board of election website. And it's not until you get probably into the nine o'clock hour that you'll start seeing pretty rapidly more and more precincts begin the process of reporting and And depending on how things shake out, we could be talking about what is a very good night for Democrats relatively early, or if Republicans show up big time on election day, which is what they're going to have to do if they want to try and pull somebody like Michael Watley over the finish line. If they want to retain majorities in the North Carolina General Assembly, we could be talking a very late into Tuesday evening, well into the 11 o'clock hour, potentially into the early hours of Wednesday morning. depending on how things shake out in 2024. It was a relatively early night as Republicans just had a banner year here in North Carolina, and it remains unseen as of right now what that is going to look like. WBT, we will be starting our election night coverage with Bo and Beth starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening. Myself, Pete Callender, many other members of the WBT team will be in and out throughout the evening as those results start coming in. And then Brett. Winterbull will be back Tuesday evening to work through the remainder of the evening as races begin the process of being called by media outlets here across the state and those national outlets as well. Strap up it's going to be a. Very interesting tuesday evening and then of course all of the post analysis wednesday and through the remainder of the week i'll be back with you a dark and early uh coming up wednesday morning at 5 a.m on the carolina journal news hour it's been a pleasure sitting in for pete counter this afternoon on charlotte's fm news talk 107.9 fm wbt i'm nick craig host of the carolina journal news hour and the nick craig show enjoy the weekend we'll chat next time. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.