Fifteen hours and nearly 67,000 ballots later, a Nov. 20 recount of all votes cast in New Hanover County confirmed the canvassed outcome of two local contests.
The 186 vote margin between commissioner-elect Rob Zapple and Republican candidate Dr. Derrick Hickey remained unchanged by the recount, which Zapple said underlined the wishes of voters.
“I’m delighted that the process was as thorough as it was. It sends a clear message that the voters have spoken, and now it’s time to get the county back to work,” Zapple said.
Lindsey McKee Luther maintained a narrow advantage over Kent Harrell in the race for District Judge Rebecca Blackmore’s open 5th judicial district seat. Harrell congratulated Luther before leaving the county elections office.
Luther, currently an assistant district attorney, said she looks forward to returning to the courthouses of Pender and New Hanover counties, albeit in a new role. Luther left the county elections office after observing the recount process and waiting for results for 16 hours.
“I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “I wanted to stay here and watch it all happen.”
More than 39,000 paper ballots voted on Election Day were recounted through an optical scan process. A group of seven or eight people opened stacks of blue plastic-wrapped ballots, fed ballots into a machine in stacks of 500 to re-tally votes, corroborated ballot counts by precinct with Election Day reports, and resealed the ballots.
Officials originally estimated an eight-hour timeframe when the recount began around 9:45 a.m. The New Hanover County Board of Elections certified the recounted totals around 12:45 a.m. Nov. 21, but results of the commissioners contest cannot be certified until an elections protest appealed to the North Carolina State Board of Elections is resolved (see related story).
N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Cheri Beasley defended her seat on the bench against challenger Mike Robinson after a recount in all 100 counties. Beasley lost 17 votes to Robinson after the recount, but still maintained a 5,410 vote advantage. The state board of elections canvassed results Nov. 25.
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