Fifteen hours and nearly 67,000 ballots later, a recount of all votes cast in New Hanover County did not reverse the outcome of two local contests.
The 186-vote margin between commissioner-elect Rob Zapple and Republican candidate Dr. Derrick Hickey remained unchanged following the recount. Zapple said the recount confirmed the wishes of the 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.”
All 39,252 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 the votes, corroborated ballot counts with Election Day precinct 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.
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