Former Labor Commissioner John C. Brooks, who is currently in second place for votes in the Democratic primary for his old job, filed for a runoff Tuesday.

Because of a huge number of provisional ballots cast on May 5, however, some North Carolina counties, including Wake, have yet to certify their primary results.

That means just who finished second to Mary Fant Donnan of Winston-Salem, who garnered about 27.5 percent of the vote, is still in doubt.

Currently, the count stands with Brooks at 24.4 percent, Ty Richardson at 24.2 percent and Robin Anderson at 23.9 percent.

As of Tuesday, 2,584 votes separated Brooks and Richardson.

If Richardson or Anderson fails to overtake Brooks to finish second, state law allows for a recount if the margin is one percent of the vote. That could add another week of uncertainty to the process.

If needed, a runoff will be held June 24, with the winner facing GOP incumbent Cherie Berry in November.

"If I have the opportunity to call for a runoff, I certainly will," said Brooks, who served as labor commissioner from 1977 to 1993. "As voters learn more about the race, they'll see I have the experience to do the job and unseat the incumbent."

Execution protocol

The Council of State won't budge on its approval of the state's revised execution protocol.

Attorneys for the council responded this week to a group of five condemned inmates who appealed the council's approval of the protocol. Attorneys with the N.C. Department of Justice filed the response in Wake Superior Court.

The inmates have said the council's approval in February 2007 was improper because it didn't hear from their attorneys first.

The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, added that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol.

Like most states, North Carolina uses a three-drug combination, the first to render unconsciousness, the second to paralyze all muscles except the heart, and the third to stop the heart.

The Council of State took up the protocol issue after Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens decided a nearly 100-year-old law requires the council to approve changes to North Carolina's method of execution.

The council decided that a physician must monitor a condemned inmate's "essential body functions" and tell the warden of Central Prison if the inmate shows signs of suffering.

Merritt on nepotism

State Auditor Les Merritt said Tuesday that the State Board of Elections had an apparent conflict of interest when it hired the spouse of a top official.

Merritt's report concerns Johnnie McLean, chief deputy director of the State Board of Elections, and her husband, who was hired in March as a temporary voting equipment employee. Merritt found that McLean was not supervising her husband, Robert McLean, and that since he was a temporary employee, state law did not specifically bar the board from hiring him.

However, the state personnel office "recommends that state agencies also attempt to avoid nepotism when hiring temporary employees," Merritt wrote.

On April 21, Robert McLean's assignment with the board ended, Gary Bartlett, executive director of the elections board, wrote in his response to Merritt's report. Bartlett wrote that the state's temporary employment agency twice told Robert McLean that he could work for the board if he didn't report to his wife.

Merritt's office received an anonymous tip that led to the investigation.

Johnnie McLean said Tuesday that an investigator from Merritt's office told her that there were at least two other allegations made against her. The fact that those were not included in Merritt's report shows the tipster was wrong, she said.

"That just indicates further the baselessness of the entire anonymous complaint," she said.

Poll paints an even field

The starting line will be the same for the two candidates in the governor's race, according to the latest survey by Public Policy Polling.

PPP says a survey May 8-9 of 616 likely voters found that Republican nominee Pat McCrory and Democratic nominee Beverly Perdue were both the choice of 45 percent of those surveyed. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The survey also found, though, that McCrory is getting more crossover support than Perdue. McCrory was the choice of 20 percent of self-identified Democrats, while Perdue was the favorite of 14 percent of self-identified Republicans.