RALEIGH — The State Board of Elections on Monday declared Vanessa Burton the winner Monday in Robeson County’s long unsettled District Court election.
The board’s members also set filing and voting dates in the re-do election for the N.C. District 9 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Board members voted 3 to 2 along party lines to certify the results of the 16B Seat 2 contest that showed Burton, a Democrat, defeated Republican Jack Moody Jr. in the race for the judicial bench position. The five-person state board is composed of three Democrats and two Republicans.
Moody had little to say about the state board’s action. But he did hint that the fight may not be over.
“We are talking with our attorney now and deciding what our next move is, what is best for us and the county,” Moody said.
Burton has not returned phone calls to The Robesonian in recent weeks, and didn’t again for this story.
The District Court contest wasn’t certified by the State Board of Elections because of concerns the results of the Nov. 6 general election were tainted by the same absentee ballot irregularities that caused the District 9 race between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready not to be certified.
The vote count taken after the Nov. 6 general election showed Moody won by 138 votes. His lead was cut to 77 after absentee ballots were tallied. After provisional ballots were counted on Nov. 15, Moody trailed Burton by 71 votes.
Burton’s margin of victory was below the 1 percent of all votes cast threshold that permits a recount request. Moody was granted a recount, the results of which showed Burton had 15,382 votes to Moody’s 15,315, a margin of 67.
State Elections Board members declared that candidate filing for the District 9 do-over is to open Monday and end on March 14. Candidates must file at the State Board of Elections office, located at 430 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh
The board also ordered that political party primary elections take place on May 14 and the general election on Sept. 10. If no candidate receives at least 30 percent of the vote cast during the primary, a second primary will take place Sept. 10 and the election will be Nov. 5.
On Feb. 21, the state board ordered a new election in District 9 after hearing days of evidence that implicated a political operative working for Republican candidate Mark Harris in the improper collection of absentee ballots. North Carolina law prohibits anyone other than a voter or immediate family member from handling a mail-in ballot.
Harris had narrowly led Democrat Dan McCready, but the elections board refused to certify the Nov. 6 results pending an investigation. McCready is running again in the new election. Harris is not and cited health problems for dropping out of the race.
“At long last, the people can begin to reclaim the rights that were stolen through historic election fraud at the hands of my opponent’s campaign and his allies,” McCready said in a statement. ” I look forward to a fair election to restore representation for the people of the Ninth District.”
