Republican voter, 49, says he was able to cast two ballots at early polling and on Election Day in North Carolina, as Trump edges ahead in the state
A North Carolina Republican says he was able to vote twice in the presidential election, claiming he cast two separate ballots over a four day period.
Richard Becht of Union County, where President Trump has taken a strong lead against Joe Biden, says he simply 'wanted my one vote to count' this year.
'How was I able to vote twice?' Becht told the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday.
Becht, a 49-year-old registered Republican, cast his first ballot on Halloween at a local early voting location.
But when he later checked his voter history on the North Caroline State Board of Elections' Voter Search, there was no record of his ballot.
Richard Becht (pictured) of Union County, North Carolina, said he voted twice this General Election
Becht returned to a polling site on Election Day, when he said a worker admitted there was no record of his first ballot and advised him to vote again.
'I don’t think the system should have allowed me to vote twice,' Becht told Charlotte Observer. 'We’re talking about putting people in positions of power.'
It's unclear why Becht was allowed to vote twice, but it's possible that it was a delay in processing the initial vote.
It's also possible a poll worker did not follow proper procedure the first time around, meaning it would not show up in his voting history and he could cast another ballot.
Word of the voting confusion comes as officials in North Carolina - a state with 15 coveted electoral - are still tallying election results.
Trump has edged ahead of Biden with 95 per cent of estimated voted counted. The GOP incumbent has so far clinched 2,732,084 votes, while Biden has taken 2,655,383.
Much of the state remained red, but Biden secured victories in metropolitan cities like Charlotte, Fayetteville and Raleigh.
In Union County, Trump appeared on a path to victory with 79,778 votes, or 62 per cent, as Biden followed behind at 48,199, or 37 per cent based on 99 per cent of expected vote reporting.
President Trump (left) currently has a lead in North Carolina, but Joe Biden (right) is close behind and not all votes had been counted
Voters line up at a polling station on Election Day in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. November 3, 2020
However, some 116,000 absentee and provisional ballots are still being counted.
North Carolina officials will accept mail-in ballots that arrive by November 12 at 5pm as long as they were postmarked by Election Day, so a definitive answer may not come until next week.
'Regardless of vote differential, we never stop counting until all eligible votes are counted and added to the final certified and audited results,' said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state elections board, in a statement.
While Democrats have widely encouraged mail-in-ballots amid the pandemic, Trump's campaign has repeatedly spoken against it.
Becht (left), pictured with his wife (right): 'I don’t think the system should have allowed me to vote twice. We’re talking about putting people in positions of power'
On Thursday, the North Carolina SBE's Voter Search showed record of Becht's Election Day vote.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the Union County Board of Elections for further details.
Brinson Bell told the Charlotte Observer that she's unsure how many double voting reports have been made so far, but claimed 'the numbers were very small.'
Brett Vines, a spokesperson for Union County Board of Elections, added that his office has received just one report.
He said the matter was 'under investigation.'
A Union County spokesperson told WBTV that they would challenge Becht's early vote so won't count.
But a NCSBE spokesperson told WBTV that if the challenge was made after 5pm, it may not be official and Becht would have voted twice the election.
Becht said he's concerned about what this incident could signify.
'As long as a vote is going through that’s what’s really important,' he told WBTV.
'But it’s definitely a flaw in the system because it shouldn’t have allowed me to do it in the first place so I don’t know what they need to do to fix it.'
Demonstrators are seen in a line at a march for voting rights on Election Day in Graham, North Carolina
Meanwhile, the U.S.'s election has descended into lawsuits as the Trump campaign revealed it will sue in battleground states won by Biden.
Additionally, Trump has demanded the nation stop counting votes in the presidential election as his campaign launched a lawsuit in Nevada, which could hand Biden the presidency should he win its six electoral votes.
The Nevada lawsuit matches legal action the Trump campaign has launched in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia as Biden approaches the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. In Wisconsin, a state called for Biden, the campaign has requested a recount.
'All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud. Plenty of proof - just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!,' Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning.
The Trump campaign had a minor legal victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday when a judge ruled ballot observers can watch officials count ballots within six feet. Representatives of both campaigns were in the room to watch the counts but at a further distance because of the coronavirus. They can now sit closer as long as they take the proper COVID precautions.
Democrats, however, are appealing the case. The situation in the state is chaotic and vote counting had stopped in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, two heavily Democratic areas, while lawyers battle it out. Philadelphia later resumed counting but results could be delayed from the state.
The situation in Pittsburgh is complicated by about 30,000 outstanding ballots, where a vendor sent the wrong ballots to voters and had to reissue new ballots with the correct races.
Poll workers now have to examine these ballots to make sure that people don't vote twice, or, if they sent in the wrong ballot, they didn't vote in races they aren't eligible for.
Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh sits, is swearing in a special board on Friday to examine these ballots, as required by law.
Biden has been closing the gap with Trump in Pennsylvania as mail-in ballots are counted.
Additionally a judge in Chatham County, Georgia, where Savannah is located, ruled against the Trump campaign's legal challenge to some absentee ballots. The judge declared officials took the proper precautions to ensure it was legal ballots that were counted. Trump's lead in Georgia fell to fewer than 20,000 votes as more vote totals were released.
The Biden campaign accused the Trump team of using the court system to delay the inevitable.
'What we’re seeing on these legal suits are that they are meritless and nothing more than an attempt to distract and delay what is now inevitable – Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,' campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillon told reporters Thursday morning.
Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona are still counting ballots more than 48 hours after the election. The large number of mail-in ballots, used by voters because of the coronavirus pandemic, has led to the prolonged count and the margins between the two presidential contenders are razor thin.
'STOP THE COUNT!,' the president tweeted Thursday as state officials continued to make their way through the legally cast votes. Trump has spent the past few days holed up in the White House, speaking to advisers about the race.
If state officials stop counting now and the election were called on the current tallies - Biden would win. The president needs to make up vote gaps in Arizona and Nevada in order to win the election - in other words he needs officials there to keep counting the ballots.
Trump later added this tweet: 'ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!'
The president was likely referring to Pennsylvania, where officials are counting any mail-in ballot received by Friday as long as it is post marked by Election Day. Trump currently leads in the state but Biden is slowing making up ground as the mail-in votes are counted. More Democrats than Republicans used the mail-in voting option.
Twitter put a warning on several of the president's tweets.
And the Trump campaign released a statement from the president to clarify his tweets: 'IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I EASILY WIN THE ELECTION! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, THEY CAN STEAL THE ELECTION FROM US!'
The Associated Press has awarded Biden 264 electoral votes - including in Arizona, a state not all news organizations have called and that the Trump campaign is arguing they can win when all votes are counted.
