Canvass puts stamp of approval on Craven voting

New Bern Vote by Precinct

Precinct              Registered       Vote        Percent

Brices Creek              5                0               0

Grantham 2B          1,876            748           39.87

George Street        2,394            589           24.6

Fort Totten           2,740            377           13.76

Grover C. Fields      1,998            449           22.47

H.J. MacDonald      4,169             583          13.98

West New Bern      4,565            1,170         25.63

Provisional                                  22

Mail Absentee                              69

Curbside                                     36

Results are now official from Nov. 3 municipal elections in Craven County.

The vote certified by Craven County Board of Elections on Tuesday kept in place the vote that tapped a new mayor in New Bern’s runoff, narrowly kept one seated in Havelock, handily gave one another term in Trent Woods, and returned unopposed mayors in Bridgeton and Dover with clear votes of confidence.

Elections director Erin Burridge sent the vote totals on to the State Board of Elections as 2009 election history with a few vote totals changed slightly as provisional ballots were approved or rejected. But the results remain essentially as presented about 9:30 p.m. Election Night.

Only two candidates in any of the municipal elections – Dover incumbent Alderman Charles “Mike” Traylor and challenger Theodore Bright – have vote totals close enough to allow them to ask for a recount in an election that brought out 99 of 332 voters, or 29.8 percent of those registered to the polls.

The official count of New Bern’s 4,434 votes for mayor divided them 2,514 or 56.7 percent for Lee W. Bettis Jr. to 1,916 or 43.2 percent for Tom Bayliss.

Runoff totals gave insignificant changes after the canvass for Alderman Ward 4, where voters elected Johnnie Ray Kinsey with 344 or 51.11 percent of the 673-vote total.

Trent Woods voters turned out with 1,218 ballots cast, 34 percent of those registered. They gave incumbent Chuck Tyson 805 votes for re-election as mayor, 65.8 percent of the total votes cast.

Canvassed totals officially give Fred “Chip” Hughes III, Bill Joiner, and Shane Turney the three seats on Trend Woods Board of Commissioners and certified the vote rejecting a charter amendment 82.8 percent to 17.2 percent. The amendment would have changed the terms in office from two years to four and staggered the terms.

Havelock’s official election totals also showed no major changes.

Burridge said mayoral challenger Charles “Chuck” Barnard added one provisional vote to his total for 294 votes, but incumbent Mayor Jimmy Sanders got two additional votes from provisional ballots.

There were three write-in votes for mayor — one each for Mark Allen, Mike Campbell and David James — but Sanders was re-elected with 307 votes as were incumbent commissioners Jim Stuart and Will Lewis Jr.

For the board of commissioners, where two seats were at stake, Stuart led with 527 votes while Lewis had 515. First-time candidate Bernd G. Doss pulled in 235 and there were 13 write-in votes for 11 individuals not on the ballot for commissioner.

River Bend voters officially re-elected Phil Seymour and Irving “Bud” Van Slyke Jr. and added Karl Hans Wolfer to the town council in balloting in which all four candidates, including incumbent Brenda D. Garvey, got more than 20 percent of the 1,482 votes cast in the 20.4 percent turnout.

The canvass validates unofficial returns for Bridgeton where voters returned Rodman L. Williams as mayor and incumbent commissioners Keith L. Tyndall, Mary A. Spano, Charles D. Freeman, and Elizabeth “Boots” Parker. Write-in candidate John Chittick in Bridgeton got 14.2 percent of the ballots cast.

Burridge said because Chittick put up signs just before the election, he will probably have to file a campaign report.

In the Dover race, Traylor had 52 votes and Bright had 51 votes. Both were within 1 percent of the 53-vote total of incumbent Alderman John Percy Wetherington Jr., who was re-elected with the fifth highest vote number for five open seats, so they can ask for a recount.

Traylor and Bright have until 5 p.m. Thursday to ask for a recount if they choose, Burridge said. Because of the Veterans Day holiday, they have an extra day to decide.

But Burridge said that with no write-in candidates in that race, it would just be a matter of running the electronic election disk numbers and would most likely bring no change.

Neither candidate could be reached by phone.

The nearly 7 percent write-in vote of 273 ballots cast in First Craven Sanitary District did not change certified top vote getters in that race and put Eddie Rowe and Cicero “Billy” Gaskins on the board.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.