As Election Results Come In, We Need to Count Every Vote

For Immediate Release

November 3, 2020 

Statement from North Carolina State AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan, “As Election Results Come In, We Need To Count Every Vote.” 

“As working people across North Carolina await the final 2020 election results, one thing must be clear: we need to count every vote to confirm whom the voters have chosen. Any politician can say whatever they want tonight and in the coming days, but the time to campaign is over. Their time is up. In our democracy, voters get to decide who will be sworn in as our leaders, not the other way around.

“People have overcome so much to vote this year and done so in record numbers despite a pandemic and deliberate, baseless attempts to undermine confidence in our democracy. In the days leading up to November 3rd, more than half of eligible North Carolinians voted either early in person or by mail. We know our qualified local election officials have been working diligently to preserve democracy, as they do in every election, and now we need to give them time to do their job of verifying that all eligible votes are counted, without interference or intimidation. 

“Elections are a process, and that process does not end until we have certified the results and sworn in the leaders that the voters have chosen in a peaceful transfer of power. This is the way American democracy has worked since the first presidential election ended in 1789, through the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. It may take longer this year to obtain all the results, but the people of the American labor movement remain committed to seeing democracy endure.”

Contact:Jeremy Sprinkle, [email protected] or 336-255-2711

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The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over one-hundred and forty-thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working people.