Incumbent fell four votes shy of retaining seat on City Council

Gil Davis has requested a recount.

Davis, an incumbent Washington councilman, still was three votes behind former Councilman Richard Brooks when election results were certified Tuesday at the Beaufort County Board of Elections’ offices in Washington.

This left Davis within the margin needed to call for a recount, which he already had requested Monday, elections officials said.

Davis trailed Brooks — 556 votes to 559 votes — at the close of Election Day on Nov. 8.

That tally didn’t change as the Board of Elections made the vote totals official.

The recount is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Board of Elections’ offices, 1308 Highland Drive.

This proceeding is open to the public.

Brooks seemed unperturbed by Davis’ call for a recount.

“I still feel the same way,” he said, referring to his earlier statement of faith in previously reported election results.

Brooks said he planned to be on hand for the recount, provided he could find someone to run his business, a bus station, during his absence.

Asked whether there was anything else he thought the public should know, he replied, “No, just pray. That’s all I can say.”

Davis couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Four provisional ballots — ballots filled out by voters whose registration status wasn’t immediately clear — were cast Nov. 8 in the city of Washington, said Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director.

The board threw three of those ballots out because the voters who marked them were not registered and had made no attempt to register before the election, Hopkins said.

Overall, no significant problems were reported with the election numbers, she related.

“It was a clean election,” Hopkins commented.

Lloyd May, a first-time Washington council candidate, did gain one vote during the canvassing process Tuesday, according to Hopkins.

May finished seventh among eight office-seekers in the race for five seats on the City Council.

May’s one-vote gain wasn’t enough to move him up or down in standing.

If the certified finishes hold true during today’s recount, Brooks, who served for nine years on the council before being defeated in 2009, will be the only “new” member of that governing body.

The council members are elected to two-year terms.