Foxx Requests Congressional Observers for NC-5 While Trailing Hubbard by 99 Votes.

Rep. Virginia Foxx asked the House Committee on House Administration to put congressional election observers into North Carolina’s 5th District while she trails Democrat Chuck Hubbard by 99 votes. The request is the new move in a race that is still unfinished: provisionals, cured ballots, and military and overseas mail are still being processed before the Nov. 13 county canvass.

Unofficial results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections precinct file still show Hubbard at 139,034, Foxx at 138,935, and Libertarian Robert B. Luffman at 7,529 — a 99-vote gap out of 285,498 votes cast. Every precinct is in. The race is not certified.

In a Friday statement on 𝕏, Foxx said election integrity “is not a mere suggestion — it is the keystone of free and fair elections,” that the 5th District count “has not halted,” and that “the continuing process, our laws, and faithful election administration will determine the election in the 5th District — and nothing else.”

At her request, she said, “nonpartisan election observers under the guidance of the Committee on House Administration will be present across the 5th District as the count continues, and will serve as important, watchful eyes to ensure that this sacred process is not impeded and that all legal votes are counted in a consistent, thorough manner.” She said the observers are dispatched under the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act to watch voting, ballot processing, and tabulation, and to gather information as they monitor the process.

The 2024 law that forces the door open

Congress passed the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act of 2024 — the COCOA Act — as Public Law 118-106. It amends the Help America Vote Act to require states to give each designated congressional election observer “full access to clearly observe all elements of election administration procedures,” including any area where a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canvassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including pre- and post-election work.

Under the statute, a designated observer is a House or Senate employee named in writing by the chair or ranking member of the Committee on House Administration or the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Observers may ask questions. They may not handle ballots or election equipment, advocate for a candidate, reduce ballot secrecy, or interfere with voting or administration. A local official who removes an observer for intimidation or disruption must notify the relevant committee chair and ranking member within 24 hours.

The Committee on House Administration’s Election Observer Program trains and dispatches House staff for that purpose. Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) runs the majority side of the program. The committee’s FAQ says observers are full-time House employees — not interns, not campaign staff — who observe, take notes, ask questions, and report back so the committee can build a factual record if a seat is contested. States may not refuse them entry based on state observer rules; COCOA and the House’s Article I, Section 5 authority to judge its own elections supersede contrary state limits.

What’s still uncounted

Foxx won eight of the district’s ten counties on election night; Hubbard’s margins in Guilford and Watauga erased that net and left her down 99. Local tallies of the State Board’s Nov. 5 provisional release put roughly 2,400 to 3,130 provisional ballots across the district’s counties, including 344 in Watauga and 1,606 countywide in Guilford — only part of Guilford sits in the 5th. Not every provisional will count in this contest.

County boards decide which provisionals to approve. Watauga’s board is set to review provisional ballots at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, with the county canvass at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13. Statewide, photo-ID cures for in-person provisional voters run through noon Nov. 10, and qualifying mailed military and overseas ballots postmarked by Election Day must arrive by 5 p.m. Nov. 12. The State Board’s canvass is set for 11 a.m. Nov. 24.

North Carolina does not order an automatic congressional recount. Under N.C.G.S. § 163-182.7, a trailing candidate in a multi-county congressional race may demand a recount when the margin is 1% or less of the votes cast. The written demand must reach the State Board by noon on the second business day after the Nov. 13 canvass — noon Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Hubbard has not publicly answered the observer request. On Thursday night he posted that he is leading by 99 votes and is “prepared to fight to count every vote while building out our office.” The Watauga Democrat reported Friday that his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the observers.

Foxx said her offices remain open to constituents and that “the process will continue.” The observers she requested are now part of that process — legally entitled to watch the rooms where the last legal ballots are accepted, rejected, or tabulated.

What to watch: Nov. 10 provisional and cure decisions; Nov. 12 military/overseas deadline; Nov. 13 county canvass; whether House observers are on site for those meetings; whether the trailing candidate demands a recount by noon Nov. 17.