PITTSBORO - After hearing from attorneys and witnesses for about four hours, the Chatham County Board of Elections voted late Thursday to refer an election protest to the State Board of Elections.

The county board agreed that voting irregularities on Election Day could have affected the outcome between town board candidates Hugh Harrington and Michele Berger, who are separated by just six votes with Harrington in the lead. The state board will meet Dec. 19 to decide whether another election should take place.

Last month, Tim Keim, who lives with Berger, filed a protest that contends there was vote-buying, campaigners standing too close to the polling place entrance, and people given the wrong ballots at the Pittsboro precinct on Election Day.

On Thursday night, the county board heard mostly from three attorneys, who spent much of the time objecting to one another's motions.

According to election officials, 17 people received the wrong ballots. Those votes should be challenged, said William Peaslee, a Cary attorney representing Harrington.

Dawn Stumpf, Chatham's director of elections, said the erroneous ballots were the result of a computer error and not voter fraud. The system they use labels streets as in or out of the town. Some streets, though, are split, she said. Stumpf is unable to retrieve those ballots, so she did not know how those individuals voted and whether it would affect the outcome of the election, she said.

Jeffrey Starkweather, a political activist in the county and an attorney who represented Keim, tried to call campaigner Mary Nettles as his first witness. In the protest, Nettles is accused of breaking the law by crossing a 50-foot buffer around the polling place. Nettles campaigned for a slate of candidates running against Berger's slate.

Nettles' attorney, Karlene Scott Turrentine, objected, saying Starkweather needed to make his case first. The board agreed, and he called Delcenia Turner, who said she saw Nettles standing at a hot dog stand about 10 feet from the door to Central Carolina Community College, where voting took place.

"She was not buying food," Turner said. "She was talking to voters." Turner and Nettles campaigned for opposing candidates.

Starkweather also called Pittsboro Mayor Randy Voller, who said he, too, saw Nettles cross the 50-foot line several times, including two to three times to stand near the hot dog cart.

Turrentine cross-examined and asked Voller whether he crossed the 50-foot buffer. Voller, who was campaigning for re-election, said he did not remember. He added that he did not enter the building to use the restroom from the time he got there at 6 a.m. until he left at 7:45 p.m.

Starkweather then called Berger, who testified she saw Nettles cross the line. Berger and Voller ran on a slate together. In a cross-examination, Turrentine asked Berger whether she talked to any voters who said Nettles had influenced their votes. Berger said no.

The final witness was Nettles, whose attorney called her. She denied all the allegations.

She said she went to the hot dog stand a couple of times, once to ask whether the hot dogs were ready and another time to buy a hot dog.