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Dare County elections board approves partial hand-to-eye recount of Nags Head ballots in NC Supreme Court contest
Summary
The Dare County Board of Elections conducted and approved a partial hand-to-eye recount of 519 Nags Head precinct ballots in the statewide North Carolina Supreme Court race between Lisonbee Riggs and Jefferson Griffin; results will be sent to the State Board of Elections to determine whether a full statewide hand recount is required.
The Dare County Board of Elections conducted a partial hand-to-eye recount of ballots from the Nags Head precinct in the North Carolina Supreme Court race between Lisonbee Riggs and Jefferson Griffin and voted to approve the recount at a special meeting.
The recount covered the 519 ballots the county identified for that precinct. Kelly McPherson, director of the Dare County Board of Elections, explained the sample recount is a bellwether: under state law, a trailing candidate who is within 10,000 votes of the leading candidate out of roughly 5.5 million ballots cast may request a recount, and the results from randomly selected precincts can trigger a statewide hand-to-eye recount.
Election staff opened the sealed container that held the precinct ballots and conducted the count using two bipartisan teams: Amy Davis (Republican) and Cindy Christie (Democrat) formed one team; Tom Moran (Republican) and Sandy Marklin (Democrat) formed the other. McPherson read the oath to the counters before they began. The teams first counted 34 "unders"—a category the tally sheets record—and that figure matched the recount tape for the precinct.
During the count both tally teams reported identical tallies for the two candidates in the sample. For Jefferson Griffin both teams reported 260 votes; for Lisonbee Riggs both teams reported 225 votes. The board chair asked for a motion to approve the partial hand-to-eye recount. A board member moved to approve and another board member seconded; the motion carried on a voice vote with those present responding "aye." No roll-call vote was recorded.
After the vote staff members signed and sealed the tally sheets and resealed the ballots. McPherson told the board the county will forward the partial-count results to the State Board of Elections, which will determine whether the discrepancies between the machine recount and the hand-to-eye sample, if extrapolated statewide, would change the outcome and therefore require a full statewide hand-to-eye recount.
With no further business, the board adjourned.
