Canvassing completed at Lenoir County Board of Elections

After Tuesday’s canvassing by the Lenoir County Board of Elections ended, it’s official: B.J. Murphy is officially the next mayor of Kinston.

But, his margin of victory over runner-up Earl Harper closed just a bit; Murphy, who was 61 votes ahead of Harper on election night, officially finished 52 votes (1,361-1,309) when all provisional ballots were counted Tuesday. City councilman Jimmy Cousins finished in third for the city’s top elected office with 923 votes.

“It’s an honor to serve in our democracy today where we can still have free elections, whether they’re partisan or nonpartisan,” Murphy said.

Other than a minor snafu at Kinston’s fourth precinct in which she kept the polling place open an additional 45 minutes, Board of Elections director Dana King said everything went smoothly as possible Nov. 3.

“Everything was counted, everything was balanced and matched with the precincts,” King said with a smile Tuesday morning. “Everything was good.”

Although turnout for the general election more than doubled that of September’s primary, only a shade over 24 percent of eligible Kinston voters turned out a week ago.

“I guessed it would be around 35 percent, so it was a little low, but I was still pleased with the turnout,” King said. “Still, I don’t know what we need to do to encourage people to get out and vote. We had 15,000 who could’ve turned out to vote in the city and only 4,000 come out.

“That’s a lot of folks who didn’t come out in this very important election. These people make the decisions on how your tax dollars are spent in the city of Kinston and 11,000 didn’t bother to vote.”

The other victors in Tuesday’s countywide canvassing included Bobby Merritt and Robert A. Swinson IV in the Kinston City Council race; Bobby Wooten, David S. Holmes and Veronica (Nicky) Lee in the La Grange town commissioner’s race; Treva H. Brigman in the Pink Hill mayor’s race; Donald R. King, Mike Hill and Carol Sykes in the Pink Hill town commissioner’s race. The La Grange mixed beverage referendum was voted down, 260-226.

Now, King and her staff turn their attention to the 2010 election, which feature three Lenoir County commissioners’ seats (Democrats George Graham and Claude Stroud; Republican Chris Humphrey); the sheriff (Democrat Billy Smith); the clerk of court (Republican Dawn Stroud); and three school board members (Democrats Keith Seaforth and Joey Bryan; Republican David Fillippeli Jr.).

Additionally, the N.C. House seat of Van Braxton, D-Lenoir and the N.C. Senate seat of Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin will be voted upon by Lenoir County voters. U.S. House Representatives Walter B. Jones, R-3rd District and G.K. Butterfield, D-1st District will be up for grabs.

“We’re getting geared up for next year,” King said with a laugh. “We’ll get everything in the system and by the time we get through with the holidays, they’ll start filing in February for the 2010 city and county races.”

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan’s blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.

Final results from Tuesday’s Lenoir County Board of Elections:

Kinston mayor

B.J. Murphy, Republican 1,361 (37.83 percent)

Earl Harper, unaffiliated 1,309 (36.38 percent)

Jimmy Cousins, Democrat 923 (25.65 percent)

Write-in 5 (0.14 percent)

Kinston City Council (two seats)

Bobby Merritt, Democrat 2,369 (49.84 percent)

Robert A. Swinson IV, Democrat 2,331 (49.04 percent)

Write-in 53 (1.12 percent)

La Grange town commissioner (three seats)

Bobby Wooten 329 (26.32 percent)

David S. Holmes 284 (22.72 percent)

Veronica (Nicky) Lee 254 (20.32 percent)

Albert Lee Gray 239 (19.12 percent)

Glenn M. Houston 141 (11.28 percent)

Write-in 3 (0.24 percent)

Pink Hill mayor

Treva H. Brigman 75 (57.25 percent)

Royce Swinson 56 (42.75 percent)

Pink Hill town commissioner (three seats)

Donald R. King 114 (32.95 percent)

Mike Hill 86 (24.86 percent)

Carol Sykes 83 (23.99 percent)

Debra Grady 63 (18.21 percent)

La Grange mixed beverage election

Against 260 (46.50 percent)

For 226 (53.50 percent)