Conway, Gaston races too close to call
Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 10, 2005
At least two elections in Northampton County are not over.
The race for commissioner in Conway and Gaston are still to close to call after unofficial results have been tallied.
In Conway, one vote separates a pair of incumbents for the fifth and final position on the town board.
Alan Conn Harris leads Lynmore Gay by one vote (67-66) with provisional ballots still pending approval. Both received 13 percent of the votes cast.
The highest total in the Conway Board of Commissioners race went to newcomer Andy Woodard, who had 98 votes in the unofficial tally.
&uot;I’m excited about the opportunity,&uot; Woodard said. &uot;I know a lot of people in Conway have put their trust in me and I will do my best to live up to that.
&uot;I look forward to working with the mayor and the other council members to keep Conway growing,&uot; he added.
Coming in second was incumbent George Clark with 82 votes followed by Peggy Davis with 74 votes and William R. &uot;Billy&uot; Joyner with 71 votes.
Incumbent Mayor Brian E. Bolton received 78 votes in the election with 14 write-ins.
While Conway’s election is close, Gaston’s is even tighter.
With all reports in, the fifth seat on the Gaston Board of Commissioners is still undecided because the fifth and sixth place finisher have exactly the same number of votes.
Becky Sykes and Wade Moseley are currently shown with 107 votes each, good enough for a tie for fifth place. There was at least one provisional vote cast in the town, but that won’t become official until next Tuesday.
The leader in votes was incumbent Commissioner Louise Bailey with 142 votes. She was trailed in close order by incumbent Mike Phelps (115), newcomer Deborah Lee Jones
(114) and incumbent Donald W. Conner.
The mayor’s race saw incumbent Commissioner Danny Tolbert take a 117-50 victory over Ron Brooks.
Garysburg’s commissioners race was thrown for a flip when incumbent Sabrina Clark Thomas withdrew from the race. Despite having 56 votes cast for her, Thomas in not eligible for election because of the withdrawal from the race.
There were 31 write-in votes cast in the commissioner race. Those votes do not become official until Tuesday’s canvass. At that time the Northampton County Board of Elections will declare a winner.
The four Garysburg incumbents were reelected easily as Lola Ausby received 90 votes, James Mayo (89), Jearline Brown (86) and Iris F. Williams (85).
Three incumbents easily won Jackson’s commission race. James &uot;Dock&uot; Boone was the highest vote-getter in his first election, garnering 72 votes while Mary Ann Crawley received 71 and Jim Gossip tallied 63.
The two final candidates were Fred W. Harper (32) and Garry Elliott (12).
Seaboard saw a similar result as three incumbents easily outdistanced two challengers to return to their seats on the board.
William Gallimore led the voting with 157 votes while Bobbie Moss had 139 and Ed Henderson received 128. Challengers Michael Procino and Ann Marie Procino received 60 votes each. There were four write-ins.
In the Seaboard mayor’s contest, incumbent Melvin Broadnax received 154 votes. There were five write-ins.
Severn’s election went without a hitch as incumbent Mayor George McGee received 74 votes with only a single write-in vote.
Commissioners Frank Ferguson (66), Eloise Martin (64), George Francis (63), Harold Garris (63) and Parker Watson (63) were all reelected. There were five write-in votes cast.
Lasker reelected Mayor Dick Collier with 19 votes. There were no write-ins.
The commissioner race saw all three incumbents reelected with Robin Gibson receiving 20 votes, Brenda Whitley (19) and Charles Daughtry Jr. (18). There were no write-ins.