The State Board of Elections on May 23 certified the results of the 3rd Congressional District primary election, which was held April 30.

A second primary for the Republican nomination will be held July 9 because no candidate received more than 30 percent of the primary votes.

Candidates Greg Murphy, who received 22.5 percent of the primary votes, and Joan Perry, who received 15.4 percent, will be on the ballot for the second primary. Perry requested the second primary in a letter to State Board Executive Director Kim Westbrook Strach.

All registered Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District are eligible to vote in the second primary. Unaffiliated voters in the district who did not vote in either the Democratic or Libertarian primary on April 30 also are eligible.

The winner of the Republican second primary will face Democrat Allen Thomas and Libertarian Tim Harris, who were certified as primary winners in their parties, in the September 10 general election. Candidate Greg Holt of the Constitution Party, which did not have a primary, will also be on the general election ballot.

Tyrrell County Democrats gave Thomas, a former Greenville mayor, 57.8% (120 votes) to 20.1% (43 votes) for Richard Bew and less than 10% each to four other aspirants on April 30.

In the Republican primary Tyrrell voters gave the nod to Eric Rouse with 56 votes, followed by Greg Murphy with 38, Jeff Moore 16, Celeste Cairns 11, Joan Perry 10, and the other 12 GOP aspirants with fewer than 10 votes each.

One Libertarian went to the polls in Tyrrell County, and Tim Harris got that vote.

Voter turnout in Tyrrell County was 18.6%, with 408 of 2,197 voters casting ballots. Across the 17-county district turnout was 14.5% with 68,593 out of 473,561 voters going to the polls.

The special election will choose a successor to the late Congressman Walter Jones, a Republican, who died February 10.