Recount may come for city school board

The final spot on the Clinton City Board of Education may be subject to a recount after unofficial election results revealed just a single vote separating two candidates for the last available board seat.

The March 5 election saw a plethora of primaries along with school board contests, Locally, just the city school board had competition, with board chair Linda Strickland-Brunson, and board members Jeremy Edgerton and Oscar Rodriguez, all vying to retain their seats and challenger Patrick Cooper seeking to make his way on the board.

Following early voting, it was Edgerton in the lead with 384 votes, Strickland-Brunson in second with 346, Cooper with 184 and Rodriguez rounding out the voting with 157. In the end, it was the incumbents taking the top three spots, according to unofficial results, with just one vote separating Rodriguez and Cooper. Edgerton was the top vote-getter with 865 (36.6%) and Strickland-Brunson was second with 721 (30.5%). Rodriguez ultimately tallied 385 votes (16.27%) to Cooper’s 384 votes (16.23%), with 11 people casting write-in votes.

Niya Rayner, director for the Sampson County Board of Elections, said Monday that Cooper had not yet requested a recount, which is a prerequisite to such a process being invoked. The canvass scheduled for this Friday, March 15, will also serve to shed further light on the returns.

“Mr. Cooper has not requested a recount in writing at this point,” Rayner said. “We are still in the process of research for provisional ballots and have to process absentee ballots that came in by the deadline election day. Canvass we will know official results and who is within the 1% margin.”

The deadline to request a recount is by 5 p.m. March 18, the first business day following the canvass, which serves as the official process of determining the votes have been counted and tabulated correctly, resulting in the authentication of the official election results.

During that March 15 canvass, North Carolina’s 100 county boards of elections each meet to certify their results for the 2024 primary election. In every county, the canvass meeting when the results are certified is 10 days after Election Day.

According to N.C. state law, cited by Rayner, a candidate shall have the right to demand a recount of the votes in a local election if the difference between the votes for that candidate and the votes for a prevailing candidate is not more than 1% of the total votes cast in the ballot item, or in the case of a multiseat ballot item not more than one percent 1% of the votes cast for those two candidates.

The demand for a recount must be made in writing and must be received by the county board of elections by 5 p.m. on the first business day after the canvass, according to state statute. The recount shall be conducted under the supervision of the county board of elections.