Late-night vote totals from several precincts in Dare County gave Beverly Boswell a push past Ashley Woolard to become the Republican nominee to take on Democrat Warren Judge in the contest for the 6^th District seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives in the Nov. 8 general election.

Boswell, a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, collected 3,810 votes (39.25 percent) to Woolard’s 3,565 votes (36.72 percent) in the Republican primary for the 6^th District seat, which is being vacated by Paul Tine, who is not seeking re-election. Tine changed his party registration from Democrat to unaffiliated in January 2015. The 6^th District includes part of Beaufort County and all of Dare, Hyde and Washington counties.

Boswell carried Dare County with 2,091 votes to Woolard’s 1,027 votes.

Judge, also a Dare County commissioner, tallied 7,480 votes (71.83 percent) to Judy Justice’s 2,933 votes (28.17 percent) to win the Democratic primary.

Vote totals are unofficial. County boards of elections will canvass ballots Tuesday during the vote-certification process. Provisional ballots and primary-day ballots could alter vote totals.

At 10:10 Tuesday night, Woolard, who lives in Washington, had 2,965 votes to Beverly Boswell’s 2,610 votes, with 33 of the 44 precincts in the district reporting vote totals. At that time, only five of Dare County’s 16 precincts had reported vote totals. After the remaining precincts reported vote totals, Boswell surged past Woolard.

Although he withdrew from the GOP primary, Arthur Williams, who lives in Beaufort County, collected 2,333 votes in the district. Williams’ name was on the ballots because he withdrew after the ballots were printed. Williams carried Hyde County with 130 votes, followed by Woolard with 99 votes and Boswell with 78 votes.

“It was a tough loss. It was definitely an up-and-down night (Tuesday) night,” Woolard said Wednesday morning. “I thank my supporters; I really do. I’m proud of the campaign we ran. I congratulate Miss Boswell. She certainly has my support in November.”

Woolard addressed the issue of Williams’ name being on the ballot. “Arthur being on the ballot was certainly a factor. If he wanted to run that bad, I wish he had let me known before filing. It was a factor. The thing is … any other year, there would have been a runoff in this race. Because of the congressional redistricting and all that, the General Assembly decided no runoffs this year. There was just multiple factors on this thing. I came up a little bit short.”

When it approved redrawn congressional district maps in February, the General Assembly also eliminated runoff elections (also called second primaries) for the 2016 election cycle. All primary elections will be decided by a plurality. A plurality vote occurs when a candidate (or proposition) collects more votes than any other candidate but does not receive a majority vote.

Woolard carried Beaufort County with 2,131 votes to Boswell’s 1,509 votes and Williams’ 1,242 votes. He also carried Washington County with 308 votes to Williams’ 161 votes and Boswell’s 132 votes.

Judge, in a brief interview Wednesday afternoon, attributed his primary victory to widespread support throughout the district.

“I’m very appreciative of all of those who supported me, worked for me and each and every one who voted for me,” he said. “I’m looking forward to November. I will work hard again to earn the support and confidence of the folks who voted for me in the primary, as well as other voters out there who haven’t voted yet. I’m going to work hard to get across the district and get as many people as possible to vote for me. Hopefully, we will be victorious.”

Attempts to reach Dare County elections officials for comment on the delayed reporting of vote totals by some of the county’s precincts and Boswell for comment on her primary victory were unsuccessful.