Candidates pick up votes during canvass; outcomes unchanged

Published 8:26 pm Friday, May 18, 2018

Some candidates picked up several votes as a result of the Beaufort County Board of Elections’ canvass Friday, but not enough to change outcomes in the primary contests.

Vote totals changed as a result of votes on 14 provisional ballots and six absentee ballots being added to the vote totals from early voting and Primary Day. Five provisional ballots were rejected because people who marked them were not registered voters or were registered outside Beaufort County. Three absentee ballots were rejected because they were postmarked late or received after the May 11 deadline.

The primary went smoothly, with no complaints from candidates, said Kellie Harris Hopkins, the county’s elections director.

“We look at the call-in sheets. We make sure that we didn’t do any call-in errors. We look at the tabulator tapes. We just audit all the numbers to make sure nothing is off kilter. … The only thing that was found, which was documented on Election Day, was a ballot from Chocowinity (precinct) went into Gilead (precinct),” Hopkins said, adding that a voter placed a ballot into the wrong vote tabulator. The two precincts, for now, share the polling place at the Chocowinity Fire Department.

Hopkins said there would be no recounts in primary contests.

In the Republican primary for Beaufort County sheriff, incumbent Ernie Coleman picked up six votes during the canvass, giving him a total of 2,964 votes. Challenger Donald Dixon picked up two votes, for a total of 870 votes.

In the Democratic primary for sheriff, Al Whitney picked up seven votes during the canvass, bringing his vote total to 1,796 votes. William Chrismon gained six votes during the canvass, increasing his vote total to 1,106 votes. Petre Franks’ vote total moved from 642 votes to 644 votes after the canvass.

In the Democratic primary for the 79th District seat in the N.C. House of Representatives, Jerry Langley’s vote total increase from 2,563 votes to 2,573 votes in Beaufort County during the canvass. Challenger Bryson Kiel Jones saw his vote total move from 874 votes to 879 votes during the canvass.

In the uncontested Republican primary for the 79th District seat, Keith Kidwell’s vote total in Beaufort County rose from 3,059 votes to 3,064 votes.

In Beaufort County, incumbent Walter B. Jones saw his vote total increase from 1,562 votes to 1,566 votes in the Republican primary for the state’s 3rd Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Challenger Phil Law’s vote total went from 1,505 votes to 1,507 votes. Scott Dacey, who also challenged Jones, picked up no additional votes during the canvass.

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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