The N&O's Ryan Teague Beckwith reports that Ballot counting goes to wire:

... Counting provisional ballots is painstaking, no more so than when voters cast them at the wrong precinct. Ballots vary from one precinct to another because candidates for U.S. House, General Assembly and judge are elected by districts.

People may cast provisional ballots if their names are not on the list of registered voters at the polling place where they showed up to vote. If they are later found to be eligible to vote, their ballots are counted.

The only way to count those provisional ballots is for elections workers such as Pace and Gilbert to mark a fresh ballot with the votes that should have been cast -- race by race, ballot by ballot.

An estimated 15,000 Wake voters cast provisional ballots, more than any other county in North Carolina. Elections staff worked 14-hour shifts over the weekend and on Monday to count them.

Still, Cherie Poucher, elections director, said they will not be finished in time for this morning's scheduled certification.

That will delay the state's final vote tally, and likely leave some close races -- including commissioner of agriculture, superintendent of public instruction and two Wake District judgeships -- up in the air a little longer. ...

Worth the read if you're interested in the North Carolina election in particular, or if you're interested in the process behind provisional balloting in general. It includes an inset-box with current tallies for races still up in the air.