After a nearly four-hour recount process Wednesday, Republicans Gary Brinn and Don Cox each picked up another vote in the Republican primary for the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, with Brinn retaining his fourth-place finish in the primary.

Brinn joins Hood Richardson, Derik Davis and Jerry Evans as the four Republicans who face Democrats Jerry Langley, Robert Belcher and Greg Satterthwaite in the Nov. 8 general election. There are four seats on the seven-member board available this election cycle. Commissioner serve four-year, staggered terms.

Because there was less than a 1-percent difference between Cox’s unofficial vote total (955) and Gary Brinn’s unofficial vote total (997), Cox was eligible to request a recount, Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director, said. After the recount, conducted by the three-member Board of Elections, Brinn had 997 votes to Cox’s 956 votes.

Each candidate gained a vote because of an “undervoted” ballot, meaning the voter who filled out the ballot did not fully fill in the “bubble” on the ballot. That caused the electronic voting tabulator to not count that vote. The Board of Elections looked at those ballots to determine the voter’s intent and agreed Brinn and Cox each gained another vote.

“I appreciate the time and effort you put into this,” Cox, who observed the recount process, told the board when the recount was completed.

Brinn also observed the recount, but left before it was completed. Greg Dority, who observed the final stages of the recount for Brinn, said he was satisfied with the way the elections officials conducted the recount.

That process included running the appropriate ballots (with Republican candidates on them) through voting tabulators and comparing those totals with the vote totals reported on Election Day.

“We want y’all to feel like it was done right,” said Jay McRoy, chairman of the Board of Elections.