A handful of pivotal states remained in play Thursday in the tightly contested U.S. presidential race. But there are outstanding ballots left to be counted in the coming days. North CarolinaThe situationWith ballots left to count, the race is too early to call. As long as those ballots are postmarked by Nov. 3, state election officials have until Nov. 12 to count them. And when it comes to mail ballots, Biden was outperforming Trump.