The State Board of Elections has ordered a new election in Morehead City after the race for mayor came down to a single vote.
The final Election Day tally in Morehead City showed City Councilman Lee Anthony Stiles defeating longtime Mayor Jerry Jones by just one vote — out of more than 1,500 votes cast.
But Jones challenged the results, pointing to at least two of his supporters who were improperly turned away from the polls.
The State Board of Elections determined Thursday that those voters should have been given provisional ballots, but poll workers instead told them they weren't eligible to participate at all.
Board members said the incident shows poll workers need better training in how to handle situations with potentially ineligible voters. A provisional ballot allows election officials to investigate whether a voter's ballot should be counted.
Attorneys for Jones wanted to let the two voters cast late ballots, which would make him the winner. They argued that would be the easiest solution. "These failures are not mere technicalities," attorney Christopher Stock said. "They're violations of clear statutory and regulatory mandates designed to protect voters from disenfranchisement."
But the elections board instead ordered a do-over of the Morehead City election in March, saying there's nothing in state law that would allow late ballots to be cast.
"As much pain and suffering and expenses this is going to cost you, it's also a great example of how every vote counts," elections board chairman Francis de Luca said. "Every vote matters."
Stiles says he's OK with a new election. "I don't mind going out and beating Mr. Jones again," he told the elections board. "I work hard. I don't mind going out again, putting in that same hard work to win this election again."
The board also ordered a new election in the town of Harrellsville due to irregularities there. The board determined that poll workers in the tiny Hertford County town didn't follow proper procedures for checking in voters and issuing ballots, and due to a large number of write-in votes, it was impossible to determine the winners in races for mayor and town council.
Harrellsville voters will also go back to the polls in March to conduct a new election.
"It's rarity to have two new elections ordered in the same board meeting, but this is a situation where there were procedures and steps and verifications that were not followed," elections board member Four Eggers said.
The State Board of Elections rejected challenges in close elections in Kinston and in another Hertford County town, Murfreesboro. In Murfreesboro, the dispute involved students at Chowan University who used a generic university mailing address on their voter registrations.
While the elections board ruled that the issue shouldn't impact the results of a town council race, board members said there's a need for clearer guidelines on how college students list their on-campus addresses on voter registration forms. Oftentimes, campus mailing addresses for students can be different from the physical address of their dormitory or other housing.
