The Associated Press and television networks have already painted North Carolina blue for Barack Obama, but the state still has ballots left to count.

The counties report having more than 53,700 provisional ballots that won't be counted until next week, Lynn Bonner reports. Those include more than 4,000 each in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, and more than 2,000 each in New Hanover and Robeson counties.

Obama holds a 13,692 vote lead in the state according to the unofficial tally.

Gary Bartlett, head of the State Board of Elections, has said that historical trends show that in the end, the candidate who was ahead on Election Day ends up with a wider lead.

Chris Kromm says provisional ballots won't help John McCain.

In a post on Facing South, the head of the Institute for Southern Studies says that the number of provisional ballots will likely be lower than in past elections because of one-stop voting and notes that they have "historically favored" the Democratic candidate.

Historically, North Carolina has had a high number of provisionals: as the N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting notes in their helpful run-down on the issue, N.C. had 77,469 provisional ballots in 2004 and 92,621 in the 2006 mid-terms. The 2004 number put N.C. in the top five nationally for provisional votes in 2004.

The number of provisional ballots is expected to be lower in 2008 because of same-day voter registration, a reform passed in 2007. The top reason people vote provisionally, and end up having their ballots rejected, is because they are not registered. In N.C., where 42% of the electorate voted during the early voting period, voters can register and vote at the same time during early voting.

He says the provisional ballots won't help McCain make up an 11,690-vote deficit to Barack Obama in North Carolina when the final votes are certified.