North Carolina's election board says hand recounts of a small portion of ballots cast statewide in the extremely close race for North Carolina Supreme Court chief justice will begin next week. Democratic incumbent Cheri Beasley asked for the partial hand-to-eye recount immediately after the machine recount of millions of ballots cast in her race with Republican Paul Newby was finally completed Wednesday. Newby remains 400 votes ahead of Beasley. The partial hand recount could be expanded statewide if there are great enough differences in the results in the random precincts. A final result in the race could still be weeks away.