The 134 uncounted ballots sitting at the Wake County Board of Elections office and waiting to be counted aren’t likely to keep Kevin Hill out of a run-off against Heather Losurdo for the District 3 school board seat on November 8.
The absentee ballots come from a mixture of the five school board districts that were up for grabs, as well as municipalities in the county, like Cary, where, at least in parts of the town, the school board seat wasn’t open this year.
If Hill had gleaned 49 of the votes that were counted for other candidates on Tuesday, he would’ve been the winner. However, he’ll need 99 of the absentee ballots to count for him to avoid the run-off because the added votes to the bottom line of total voters change the percentages, and that’s assuming no votes from the absentee ballots go to any other District 3 candidates.
With only 134 countywide votes uncounted, the chances of that are extremely small.
Election night chatter on Twitter suggested more than 200 absentee ballots might be influencing the District 3 race if received by Friday.
Wake County Board of Elections Deputy Director Gary Sims said there are only 134 absentee ballots for the entire county. He also said those ballots could arrive at the Board of Elections no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday, the day of the elections.
According to Sims, Hill won’t be able to request a recount either.
“There is no recount provision, period,” Sims said.
Votes from the absentee ballots will be tallied up before Tuesday, when the Board of Elections officially certifies Tuesday’s results.
Losurdo has already said she would request a run-off. On election night, she told the Record, “I will start campaigning tomorrow.”
District 3 has the most evenly distributed number of Republicans and Democrats. It’s made up of 36.1 percent Democrats, 35.9 percent Republicans and 27.8 percent unaffiliated voters.
A poll by Public Policy Polling found Hill to be leading Losurdo by 16 points among independent voters.
