Who's watching the counters?

I was just looking at the election "returns" for the two closest state-wide races that I can ever remember. And one thing stood out as quite strange.

For Lt. Governor, the "unofficial" totals had Mr. Barber leading by over 16,000 votes. I was viewing the same site last night when it went from 92% to 98% and Mr. Bauer "held onto" a lead that even increased a little. With 100% reporting Mr. Bauer leads by 3,222 votes! Somewhere between early counts (which I did not see) and those I did see, Bauer must have picked up ALL the votes out there (absentee?).

The same thing happened in the State Supt. of Schools race. In the same "unofficial" totals Mr. Rex has an astounding 19,320 vote lead. When I checked a midnight, his lead was around 300. With 100% it stands at just 211. Out of just over 1,056,000 votes that is astounding! But here again over 19,000 votes come in for one candidate. But from where?

I am a Republican, but what went down here? And how long will we be in the recounts. And does anyone know if only a plurality is needed in the general election? Neither Mr. Rex nor Ms. Floyd got over 50% since there were four other candidates drawing about 6%.