You have to hand it to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. He’s no quitter.

Two weeks ago he was riding the election night wave of Republican victory in the state, only to be stunned in the closing moments by 90,000 “found” ballots from the deep-blue county of Durham.

McCrory lagging in a place like Durham is not a shock.

The shock is from the lead the successful one-term governor held through the night, only to see it toppled in the final moments, and by such a thin margin.

Currently, his Democrat challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper, holds about a tenth of a percentage point lead.

As long as the count stays under 10,000 votes, Governor McCrory has the right to protest, and he has.

Today, as the state Board of Elections deliberated how to instruct county election boards, Governor McCrory took a preemptive step.

From McCrory’s website:

To protect the voters of North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory joined Chuck Stuber, candidate for state auditor, in officially filing for a statewide recount Tuesday morning. This recount was filed to meet the original date statutorily specified, although the formal recount will not occur until after the county boards of election certify their results. “With many outstanding votes yet to be counted for the first time, legal challenges, ballot protests and voter fraud allegations, we must keep open the ability to allow the established recount process to ensure every legal vote is counted properly,” said Russell Peck, Pat McCrory’s campaign manager.

McCrory is right to use every avenue at his disposal.

Democrats have been handed victory after victory in the state, no matter how undeserved.

In fact, had the state’s common sense voter ID laws been left in place, rather than tossed out by liberal, activist judges just weeks before the election, we’d likely not be in this predicament, now.

In related news, the Civitas Center for Law and Freedom has filed a separate federal lawsuit, seeking to block Same-day voting ballots, based on a challenge to the by-passed verification process for those voters.

From the Civitas website:

Civitas President Francis De Luca said, “To count ballots without verification of same-day registration information discriminates by treating one class of voters differently from another. Furthermore, this calls into question the outcome of close elections such as the one we are still in the middle of in North Carolina. Legitimate voters should never have their votes cancelled by illegitimate voters. The State Board of Elections should examine every ballot cast via same-day registration to verify that every vote cast is genuine and legitimate.”

The gist of this suit’s claims are that same-day voters – that is, voters who registered and voted on the same day, during early voting days – were accepted without going through the verification process required by state election law.

The verification process generally takes about 30 days. The CLF alleges that there was not sufficient time for the verification process to complete for those same-day voters, ahead of the general election.

The CLF filed a complaint with the NC Board of Election, which you can see here.

You can also view the federal lawsuit here.

Keep pounding, Governor McCrory. There are so few real fighters in conservative circles, and not just those who fight, but those who fight for the right reasons.

This fight is the right reason.