LUMBERTON — Ten days after votes were cast, Leon Maynor and Laura Sampson will have to wait a little longer to find out who will represent Lumberton’s Precinct 7 on the City Council after December.
After hours of sorting through thousands of one-stop ballots by hand, elections officials recessed canvassing for the race until Monday at 4 p.m. under the advice of the State Board of Elections, which will step in to help sort out what was called an “odd” situation.
When officials called it a night at 7:30 p.m., they were still working to determine the intent of the last of six voters whose ballots were deemed ineligible during challenge hearings. Without the challenged votes taken into account, Maynor and Sampson remain almost deadlocked with a one vote-margin in favor of Maynor.
“This is a brain teaser for me and I thought I’d seen it all,” Elections Board Chairman Steve Stone told the candidates and their supporters.
When Elections Board staff finally located the sixth ballot after hours of searching, they found the ballot was marked spoiled, meaning the voter likely either asked for a new ballot or left the polling place without turning the ballot in. The spoiled ballot was only marked with a vote for Lumberton mayor, not the Precinct 7 race.
Staff was working to determine if the voter made a second attempt to cast a ballot and if that ballot was marked with the correct registration number. A ballot cast for the correct race was identified, but did not match the voter’s registration number.
“At this time, we are not able to finalize the matter,” Stone said. “… This decision will not be made tonight.”
With no official announcement of how many votes they each lost to challenges, the candidates left anxious for some resolution.
“I’ll just be glad when the Elections Board makes its decision,” Maynor said.
Sampson said she is confident following the results of the challenge hearings.
“Of course I am tired and a little exhausted as is everyone else but I’m hopeful and I’m excited to have this settled once and for all, hopefully Monday at 4,” she said.
In all, 16 challenges were heard over four hours Friday, with 10 being overruled by the Elections Board. Initial election results showed Maynor winning the race by one vote. He maintained that margin after provisional ballots were counted Monday night, 284 to 283. Those results are not official until canvassed.
Once canvassing is complete, candidates have until 5 p.m. the next business day to ask for a recount. A recount can be requested when the margin between candidates is less than 1 percent of the total votes cast in the race.
Maynor and Sampson faced a similar result in a 2007 race, in which Maynor won the seat by one vote. A recount request by Sampson resulted in a tie at 214 votes each, and Maynor took the council seat following a do-over election.
