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Elections

TV-style election night coverage, finally for local races

Cable news gives the presidential race the big graphics and the dramatic race calls. Your school board gets a row on a results page. On Tuesday night, WakeVotes Live gives the races on Wake County ballots the full election night treatment, free, on your TV, laptop or phone.

Peak News Network

Open live.wakevotes.org

The lineup

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. Bookmark live.wakevotes.org now. This list was chosen as a set of competitive races in Wake County, plus a few statewide races. It's 18 of the 65 contests on ballots somewhere in the county. The other 47 appear on summary cards: the 15 unopposed races from the start, and the rest once Wake's first votes post.

Wake County

  • Commissioners: at-large and District 2
  • School board: Districts 1, 2, 7 and 9
  • Soil and water supervisor
  • School bonds referendum
  • Community college bonds referendum

Legislature

  • NC House: Districts 35 and 37
  • NC Senate: Districts 13 and 18

Statewide

  • U.S. Senate
  • NC Supreme Court, Seat 1
  • NC Court of Appeals, Seats 1, 2 and 3

The rotation also includes cards tracking every seat in the NC House, the NC Senate and North Carolina's U.S. House delegation. The rest of Wake's ballot, including Raleigh's races and the constitutional amendments, shows up on the Called Races card once a race is decided, or on an Other Wake Races card until then. Those races don't get their own slide or a full-screen announcement.

The data

No magic. Just Board of Elections data, easier to browse

Every vote count comes from the NC State Board of Elections results site. That data is public, and anyone can look at it. WakeVotes Live checks it about every 30 seconds, downloads it and puts it on a screen that's easier to follow. We don't have a secret source or an inside line.

The one thing we add is arithmetic. Projections and race calls are our own estimates, calculated from the State Board's current and past results. They aren't the State Board's, and the numbers are unofficial until county boards canvass. Candidate photos and county party endorsement labels in nonpartisan races come from elsewhere.

What you'll see

The full broadcast treatment

The screen moves to a new race about every 12 seconds, with a ticker across the bottom. Every candidate gets two numbers: the share counted so far, large, and the projected final share in amber. When a featured race is called, a full-screen announcement takes over, with music if you click once for sound.

About the pictures. These screenshots come from a replay of the Nov. 5, 2024 election in Wake County, using the State Board's real results from that night. Each one is marked as a replay. Some of these candidates are on the ballot again this year, but none of these pictures show 2026 votes or predict 2026 results.

Every race, on its own card. Replay of 2024, NC House District 35, early vote only.
Everything decided, at a glance. Replay of 2024. Called races collect on this card, winner beside runner-up.
Every seat in the chamber. Replay of 2024. Solid seats are called, softer ones projected, outlined ones leaning. Unopposed and very safe seats count as called from the start.
Ballot measures too. Replay of 2024, Wake's library bonds. Crowded local races show every candidate in vote order.
Made for phones. Swipe to change races.
  • ←→change races
  • Spacepause the rotation
  • Pswap count and projection
  • Mmute

The arithmetic

Why the first number can fool you

The first numbers after polls close are mostly early votes, and early voters don't always vote like Election Day voters. So we compare each precinct with how it voted before, using the State Board's past results, and estimate what's still out. In 2024, NC House District 35 in Wake County showed why.

Hopkins +0.3the early count: Evonne Hopkins ahead 49.1% to 48.8%, with no precincts in yet
Schietzelt +4.7the projection at that same moment: Mike Schietzelt 51.6% to 46.9%
Schietzelt +3.2the actual final result: 50.3% to 47.1%

We picked that race because the lead flipped, and projections aren't always that close. In our test replays of 2024, the average miss on the margin was about 4 points with only the early vote in, about 2.4 points at 25% of precincts and under 1 point at 75%. Races that aren't one Democrat against one Republican get a simpler estimate that's for display only.

The calls

Try it: when does a race get called?

A race is called when the math settles it, or when the trailing candidate would need at least 10 points more of the remaining vote than we project. Move the sliders to see what the screen would say.

What the screen would say

Simplified from the real rules, for a two-candidate race with 40,000 votes counted. The real estimate of votes left is raised 25% for the test, and a projected margin must top 1.5%. Multi-seat races, nonpartisan races and referendums are called only by math or a complete count, never by projection.

These calls are ours, not the state's, and they can be wrong. If one stops holding for a full minute, the screen says so and withdraws it. Each announcement carries a stamp: "For entertainment purposes only. Not a rigorous statistical analysis." For official results, use the State Board's results site.

Tuesday

Vote first, then watch

Polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at your assigned precinct. Look up your own ballot first at wakevotes.org. Races show no votes until results start posting after polls close.

Then pull up live.wakevotes.org. WakeVotes is a project of Peak News Network and is not affiliated with the Wake County Board of Elections.

Info current as of November 1, 2026.

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