Review of ballots to begin Monday
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on November 7, 2004 2:09 AM
The Wayne County Board of Elections plans to begin its review of 2,424 absentee ballots at 9 a.m. Monday.
The board's chairman, Geoff Hulse, said Friday morning that the election staff had already researched 600 of the ballots.
Work continued all day Friday, and Elections Director Gary Sims expected to have the remainder finished by the canvass, which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Elections Board will begin ruling on the eligibility of the already researched ballots.
"We're not wasting time; we're moving at a steady pace," Hulse said. "It's a slow process, and we're going to do it right."
A large number of ballots is expected to be found valid after the Elections Board confirms voters' registrations. Most of the provisional ballots were required because voters had not updated their address changes 30 days before the Nov. 2 election.
The board spent most of Friday reconciling the tapes from tabulators with the reports called in by pollworkers. It found a number of small errors and a few where someone transcribed numbers. In one case, one state candidate's total was 600 votes off.
But the local results were virtually unaffected.
County Commissioner Andy Anderson picked up 10 votes, which he didn't need because he was unopposed.
And Commissioner Atlas Price increased his margin over Hal Keck by one vote, which may or may not be significant when those other 2,000-some votes are added in.
There was no change to the other commissioner race that was close -- the District 5 showdown between Bud Gray and Ed Wharton.
Price and Wharton attended the board's entire meeting Friday. Keck stopped in. Gray was represented.
Monday's meeting will be in the Fred Parker Memorial Boardroom, the Board of Elections' building, 209 S. William St., Goldsboro.