Election results unchanged after Friday’s canvass
Published 6:07 pm Friday, November 17, 2017
The results in the seven municipal elections in Beaufort County are official.
The Beaufort County Board of Elections conducted its canvass Friday, making some adjustments to Election Day vote totals because of provisional ballots. The board reviewed 16 such ballots, accepting seven of them.
The votes on those seven provisional ballots were added to the vote totals from early voting and Election Day vote totals. Although some candidates received votes from those seven ballots, those votes did not alter outcomes.
Most of the provisional ballots not accepted by the three-member Board of Elections — Chairman Jay McRoy, John B. Tate III and Tom Payne — were rejected because people had been removed from the voter rolls because of inactivity and had not re-registered to vote. One provision ballot was rejected because the voter did not live in the municipal limits.
During the canvass, Kellie Harris Hopkins, the county’s elections director, explained the canvass process to a small audience observing the board’s work. “We look at under-votes and over-votes and stuff like that. I wish I had found a whole lot of stuff because then it’s interesting to show. We want people to know we do this. This is a small election. We had absolutely no issues with it,” she said. “This was a very clean election.”
In the Aurora races, Mayor Clif Williams, who ran unopposed in his re-election bid, picked up a vote from a provisional ballot as did Jeff Peed, a candidate for a seat on the Board of Commissioners.
In the Belhaven mayor’s race, Ricky Credle picked up a vote from a provisional ballot, as did Jay Wilkins, Ricky Radcliffe and Mary Cox in the Board of Aldermen races.
Chocowinity Commissioner Curt Jenkins, who lost in his bid to unseat Mayor Jimmy Mobley, got three votes from provisional ballots. Incumbent commissioners William Albritton and Louise Furman each got one vote from a provisional ballot. Challenger Elizabeth A. Ange received two votes from provisional ballots.
In his unopposed re-election bid, Washington Mayor Mac Hodges got two votes from provisional ballots. City Council candidates Gil Alligood, Richard Brooks, Bill Clark, Doug Mercer, William Pitt, Robert Sands, Gerald Seighman and Roland Wyman each picked up one vote from provisional ballots.
After handling the provisional ballots, the board certified the election results.