Sheriff candidates waiting on 540 votes

Provisional ballot tally will decide if sheriff's race challenger concedes

Friday, November 17, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

Democrat Steve Hunt, who last week suffered a narrow loss to incumbent GOP Sheriff David Huffman, is waiting until the 540 provisional ballots are tallied today before he'll decide whether to concede.

Unofficial results show Huffman beating Hunt by 418 votes, a 2 percent margin.

"There are more votes out there than I was defeated by," Hunt said, "and I hope these votes could turn it around."

To call for a recount, Hunt would have to make up about 150 votes in the provisional ballots and trim the difference by more than 330 votes, or less than 1 percent.

Huffman won 51 percent, or 17,179 votes, to Hunt's 49 percent, or 16,698 votes.

Provisional ballots are cast when information about the voter does not match information on file in the Board of Election's records. They are mostly cast by residents who recently moved within the county but didn't update their addresses, said Catawba County Elections Director Larry Brewer.

The canvass of the 540 provisional ballots was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. today, and Brewer said he expects to declare official results for the Nov. 7 election by the end of the day.

Huffman said last week that he was surprised to see such a close margin in the unofficial election results and thought he'd beat Hunt by at least 1,500 votes.

While Huffman said the 418-vote margin should be enough of a cushion, he's hesitant to declare an official victory until all the ballots are counted.

"I'm just hoping the provisionals will look good," he said.

Each candidate won exactly half of the county's 40 precincts, and about 35 percent of registered Catawba County voters cast their ballots, which officials at the Board of Elections said was higher than expected.

Lowell Ashman, a professor of political science at Lenoir-Rhyne College who has tracked election results for 30 years, said the ballots could bring Hunt within 1 percent, particularly if the majority of the provisional votes were cast in neighborhoods where Hunt did well.

Ashman said he's doubtful, however, that a recount would change the results because Huffman already holds a more than 400-vote lead. "It might be closer," he said, "But I think the outcome is going to remain as it is."

In neighboring Caldwell County, a close race for the second open seat on the Soil and Water Conservation Board could go either way after 288 provisional ballots are counted.

Incumbent Jeff Rash leads challenger Michael Willis by 19 votes. Rash secured 4,786 votes and to Willis' 4,767 votes.

Seventy-one provisional ballots were cast in Alexander County and 278 were cast in Burke County. Neither county held a close enough race for the provisional balances to change the unofficial results, according to the boards of elections in those counties.


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