Beaufort County’s Board of Elections, like some other elections boards across North Carolina on Wednesday, participated in a recount of votes in an extremely close judicial race.

The recount, which had not been completed by the local board as of late Wednesday afternoon, was ordered by the State Board of Elections in the N.C. Supreme Court contest between Cheri Beasley and Mike Robinson. After last week’s canvassing by local elections boards, statewide vote totals had Beasley with 1,239,222 votes (50.11 percent) and Robinson with 1,233,795 votes (49.89 percent). Other counties are scheduled to conduct their recounts today. Some counties performed their recounts Tuesday.

North Carolina law provides for an automatic right to a recount in any statewide race when the margin is under 0.5 percent or 10,000 votes, whichever is lower.

The recount in Beaufort County began at 9 a.m., according to Anita Bullock Branch, Beaufort County’s deputy director of elections. All certified ballots were fed into tabulating machines during the day. The recount was supervised by the Board of Elections, which includes Chairman Jay McRoy, John B. Tate III and Tom Payne. McRoy and Tate are Republicans. Payne is a Democrat.

After Beaufort County Board of Elections completed its canvass last week, Robinson had 8,475 votes (57.09 percent) in the county, with Beasley receiving 6,369 votes (42.91 percent). Robinson carried 15 of the county’s 21 precincts. Beasley carried Blounts Creek, Edward and Aurora precincts, all on the south side of the Pamlico River, and Washington 1, 2 and 3 (P.S. Jones) precincts. Robinson collected 2,606 votes during the early voting period, 150 votes by absentee ballot and 11 votes by provisional ballots, Beasley captured 3,095 votes during early voting, 74 votes by absentee ballot and eight votes by provisional ballots. On Election Day, Robinson got 4,708 votes while Beasley received 3,192 votes.