Cooper Names Transition Team Despite Election Results Not Being Certified

CHARLOTTE, NC – Roy Cooper is moving forward with plans to take over as Governor. Cooper appointed a transition team Monday even though the election results haven’t been certified.

The official count from the State Board of Elections has Cooper ahead of Governor Pat McCrory by more than 6800 votes.

We won’t officially know who’s won the race for Governor until the process of counting provisional ballots wraps up.

Each county will send their final numbers to Raleigh.

“The five member board up there will actually certify the election. And say OK, these are the results, this is what we certified. Here are the winners, here are the ones who didn’t win,” explains Mecklenburg County Board of Elections Director Michael Dickerson.

An election protest means votes in Mecklenburg County will not be certified for at least another week.

The continued counting hasn’t stopped Roy Cooper – who appointed a transition team Monday and launched a website taking job applications.

In a statement Cooper said, “It’s 40 days until I take the oath of office. It would be irresponsible to wait any longer…”

Meanwhile the McCrory camp continues to claim issues of voter fraud concerns about felons’ or dead people’s votes counting.

A spokesperson for McCrory said.. “We intend to let the process work as it should to ensure that every legal vote is counted properly.”

“North Carolina is in the middle of an electoral mess. And in the headlines for all the wrong reasons,” says WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis.

Curtis says she’s not sure how much further Republicans will want to push what looks like a losing battle.

“In the legislature, no matter who’s the Governor, they’re going to have the power. So I am not sure how far they’re going to do down this road and at a certain point the voters are going to start to get angry, on both sides,” Curtis says.