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he race for the fifth seat on Oriental’s Town Board flipped in favor of write-in candidate Warren Johnson Thursday afternoon. That happened after the Pamlico County’s Board of Elections pored over 243 write-in votes and determined he had 6 more votes than were initially credited to him in Tuesday’s election.

That gives Johnson 161 votes, three votes more than candidate Hugh Grady’s 158.

County elections director Lisa Bennett with Board of Elections members Delcene Gibbs, Judy Smith and David Cox.

That standing could change yet again next Tuesday, November 15, when the Board of Elections convenes again and as many as 7 provisional ballots may be counted.

Elections Board’s Challenge: What Did The Voter Mean?

On Thursday afternoon, however, the Board’s focus was strictly on the write-in ballots and in particular, several write-in votes that were put to the side on Election night because it wasn’t entirely clear for whom the vote was meant.

For almost an hour Thursday, Board of Election Chairman Dave Cox read aloud from what looked like what you’d get after a big trip to the grocery store — a narrow printout, several feet long, which was compiled from the voting machines after the polls closed on Tuesday.

On that list of write-ins, two names predominated: Warren Johnson and Pat Herlands, both of whom had mounted official write-in campaigns in the few weeks before Election Day

Variable Spellings Allowed

It was the variations in spelling of their names that occupied most of the Board of Elections’ time at the Thursday sessoin. Cox said they would have to make “judgment calls” keeping in mind “the intent of the voter.” (He cited Alaska’s US Senate race last year and write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski; a court ruled that voters didn’t need to spell her name perfectly to have their vote for her count.

The Pamlico Board of Elections – Delcene Gibbs, David Cox, Judy Smith and the long ticker tape of write-in names that they reviewed for an hour THursday afternoon.

There were a variety of spellings of Herlands’ last name – dropped “s“s, substituted vowels. Those were counted as votes for her.

In Johnson’s case it was generally his first name that was misspelled. Several voters just wrote in the last name, Johnson. Those were credited to his tally.

There were also votes for a William Johnson and a Walter Johnson and it was with those that the Board of Elections members — Cox, Delcene Gibbs and Judy Smith — grappled the longest. In the end they determined that there was no William Johnson in Oriental — and ditto no Walter Johnson — for whom the vote would have been intended, and so they determined that it was the intent of the voters in those cases to have voted for Johnson.

After an hour of going through each write-in vote, Johnson had picked up 6 votes, while Herlands gained 2.

No to Warren Harding, Yes to Candy Cane

The Board of Elections drew the line at Warren Harding.

A write-in vote echoing the name of the 29th President was not put in Warren Johnson’s column.

(On election night, as some members of the public waited for results at the polling station, some laughs broke out when the poll workers began the initial count and called out the name of the 29th President. It didn’t seem out of place, as dogs in Oriental have been known to earn write-in votes.

Another write-in vote that brought stifled laughs on Tuesday was for “Candy Cane”.

But the Board of Elections on Thursday determined that that wasn’t a joke. “Candy Cane” the Board said, should be tallied up with several others that had been written in for current Town Commissioner, Candy Bohmert … neé Cain.

The printout of the write-in votes. There were 243 on this tape, representing the write-ins cast on the machines inside the polling place on Tuesday. There were other write-in votes cast at curbside that day and also in early voting. Those were not reviewed Thursday afternoon. Rather, the Board of Elections focussed on the spelling variations on this list.

A Three Vote Delta, But Still To Come, The Provisional Ballots

For the moment, Warren Johnson holds that slim 3 vote lead, thanks to the question mark being removed from the half-dozen write-ln votes which went in to his column Thursday.

Still, the race is not over. The Board of Election has to meet on Tuesday November 15 to consider 7 provisional ballots that were cast on Election Day. They are provisional because the voters names were not in the rolls when they went to vote on Tuesday. They filled in ballots that were set aside so that their eligibility could be determined after Election Day. Those 7 ballots could change the outcome of the contest for that fifth seat on the Town Board yet again.

The Hard Won Fifth Seat On The Oriental Town Board

Warren Johnson is no stranger to squeaking in to office. Two years ago, he gained the board’s fifth seat by defeating the 6th place finisher, Harvey Hardison by two votes.

That however was not the closest finish for that seat. In 2007, two candidates, Barbara Venturi and Candy Bohmert tied for 5th place. That race was settled at the Board of Elections by putting names in to a flower pot; Bohmert’s was the first pulled out.

With this case pending, and anticipating another razor thin finish, county elections officials late Thursday afternoon were looking in to what the state rules were for how close a race had to be to be subject to a recount.

Posted Friday November 11, 2011 by Melinda Penkava