The Vance County Board of Elections’ canvass of the October 6th Henderson Municipal Election is complete. Two runoffs are anticipated.
Candidates Marion Brodie Williams and Clarence J. Dale finished tied with 234 votes apiece for the Ward 1 Ward Seat. Election Board Director Faye Gill said, “One of the candidates may withdraw up to three days after the canvass by writing a letter to The Board of Elections.” Otherwise, a runoff is expected.
George McCue is Agency Council for the North Carolina State Board of Elections. He said in 2013 there were a handful of ties across the state. “With 550 plus municipalities and multiple contests in each, and with the relatively smaller number of voters, it’s pretty typical in a municipal election year to have at least a couple tie votes somewhere in the state,” he said.
The Ward 3 At Large contest between Melissa Elliott, Brenda Peace and Jason Spriggs wound up with nine votes separating Elliott and Peace. Elliott 1,037 and Peace 1,028. More importantly, Elliott did not have at least 50 percent of the votes plus one more vote. Therefore, a runoff is expected between Elliott and Peace.
McCue said, “The nice thing about October elections is you can have a runoff in November.” When an election is held in November, there are some situations where random selection of a candidate can come into play by state statute.
Early voting starts October 22nd. Election day is November 3rd.
