News Organizations Call North Carolina For Obama

Washington, D.C.—Several national news organizations declared Barack Obama the winner of North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes, on Thursday.

Though North Carolina election officials were still tallying provisional ballots, the Associated Press said a canvas of county election offices found there were not enough outstanding ballots for John McCain to overtake the President-Elect’s slim lead in the state.

The New York Times followed suit, noting that Obama’s slim margin over McCain in North Carolina had expanded slightly as the remaining ballots were counted. NBC News also said Thursday that Obama was the “apparent winner.”

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Obama led McCain in North Carolina by three-tenths of one percent, a margin of 13,693 votes out of more than 4.2 million cast. 

After the remaining provisional ballots are counted, election officials will certify the results later this month.

The news organization calls appeared to make Obama the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and increased his electoral vote total to 364.