LUMBERTON — Tiffany Peguise-Powers has been named the chairperson of the Robeson County Board of Elections.
Interim Director Tina Bledsoe said Gov. Roy Cooper’s office called about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to announce the governor had selecte Powers to be the fifth member of the board and to serve as the chairperson.
The members of the new five-member board will be Powers, Larry Townsend and Karen D. Nance, all Democrats, and Republicans Stephen Stone and Olivia Oxendine. Powers, Townsend and Stone were members of the county board that was dissolved in late December, along with all other county boards and the state board, after a court ruled the existing nine-member State Board of Elections was unconstitutional.
The party of the governor get the majority on county elections boards.
It will now be up to Powers to schedule a swearing-in ceremony and an organizational meeting. Afterward Powers must prepare the board members to deal with uncertified races.
The old state board did not certify the race for Seat 2 of District Court 16-B in Robeson County. Vanessa Burton, a Democrat, was shown to have beaten Jack Moody, a Republican, after absentee and provisional ballots were counted. The final total was 15,382 votes for Burton to Moody’s 15,315.
The U.S. House N.C. District 9 race also remains uncertified. The contest between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready was left in limbo by the state Elections Board when allegations of absentee ballot irregularities arose shortly after the Nov. 6 general election. The political race has been the subject of an investigation by the state board’s staff since then and now is the topic of an evidentiary hearing taking place in Raleigh. Unofficial results show Harris leads McCready by 905 votes.
The county board also must certify the results of the Lumberton City Council election that took place Jan. 29. Unofficial results showed John Carroll received 84 votes in his uncontested bid to win the Precinct 3 seat, and Eric Chavis, the lone candidate for the Precinct 7 seat, garnered 87. Neither man can take his seat on the council until the election results are certified.
The county board also must hire a new director. Bledsoe has been serving as interim director since former Director G.L. Pridgen retired in August.
