State backs new election in Pittsboro

Two Town Board candidates separated by six votes in the Election Day tally will face each other again; no date has been set

RALEIGH -- The State Board of Elections voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize a new election between the third- and fourth-place finishers for Pittsboro Town Board.

Hugh Harrington finished six votes ahead of Michele Berger to win the third and last open seat. But 17 voters received the wrong ballot, which could have affected the outcome, State Board of Elections Chairman Larry Leake said Wednesday.

The state board did not address allegations in an election protest filed by Tim Keim, who lives with Berger and works for Mayor Randy Voller, though it heard arguments from three attorneys on Keim's allegations that campaigners for Voller's and Berger's opponents violated election laws, including crossing a 50-foot buffer line at the polls on Election Day.

The state board heard from William Peaslee, a Cary lawyer representing Harrington, as well as Karlene Scott-Turrentine, an attorney representing Mary Nettles, who Keim said intimidated Berger and got too close to the polls as voters went inside.

Leake, however, cut off Jeffrey Starkweather, a political activist in Chatham County and attorney who represented Berger, as he tried to argue the accusations made in the protest. Instead, Leake asked Chatham County Attorney Kevin Whiteheart to address the voter irregularities discovered by the board of elections staff.

Whiteheart said a computer error listed some county voters as living in the town and some town voters as living in the county. Most of the irregularities were caught, but 17 were not -- 14 county voters got town ballots, and three town voters got county ballots, which did not let them vote for Town Board. County elections staff say they can't retrieve the votes and don't know how those residents voted.

All Chatham voters could cast ballots on Election Day on a 0.4 percent land transfer tax, which was defeated. Pittsboro voters also got to vote for Town Board.

The county's board of elections held a hearing earlier this month on the allegations made in the protest. After more than five hours of testimony, the county board referred the matter to the state, saying voter irregularities could have affected the outcome of the town's election. The board voted 2-1 saying Nettles violated election rules, but refrained from saying whether it had affected the outcome.

Harrington will not take office unless he wins the new election.

No date was given for the new election. The county has to wait at least 55 days to hold a new election. Dawn Stumpf, county elections director, said the new election would cost about $2,000.