Officials get set for new election
December 15,2004
Jannette Pippin   New Bern Sun Journal
Freedom ENC

BEAUFORT - Although the candidates have appealed aspects of the state-approved Jan. 11 special election in Carteret County, local elections officials are busy preparing for the vote.

The North Carolina Board of Elections agreed to hold a new election in Carteret County for the commissioner of agriculture race, and unless the county elections board hears otherwise, it has to be ready in four weeks to open the polls in 34 precincts.

"We're still going right on just like there will be an election," said Alva Gillikin, deputy director of the Carteret County elections office.

Letters need to go out this week notifying poll workers of the day they should pick up supplies and attend a routine pre-election training session. Also in the coming days, there are supplies to gather, sample ballots to print and voters to notify.

The state has helped the county compile a list of those eligible to participate in the special election, which will be open only to the 4,438 voters whose ballots went uncounted during the November election and those who did not vote at all.

Those whose votes were lost will be notified by mail, and there will be advertisements in the local media to notify those who did not vote that they will have another chance to do so.

After hearings on formal complaints about the 4,438 uncounted ballots, the state Board of Elections ordered the Jan. 11 election. The mishap was blamed on misinformation about the storage capacity of the electronic voting machine used during Carteret County's early voting period.

Three of the four candidates in two tight state races - commissioner of agriculture and superintendent of public instruction - filed complaints. The state board ordered a special election only in the Britt Cobb-Steve Troxler race for agriculture commissioner.

Troxler, the Republican candidate, leads the Democratic incumbent by 2,287 votes out of about 3 million cast.

Both candidates have now filed appeals related to the special election, but neither is waiting for a court decision to begin hitting the campaign trail in Carteret County.

"We're on a dual tract. We're preparing for the appeal, and we're preparing to win on Jan. 11," said Cobb spokesman Marc Siegel.

A television commercial for the Cobb campaign began running in the county Tuesday, Siegel said.

Troxler began a door-to-door campaign effort Monday and was in the county earlier this month with stops at the Core Sound Decoy Festival and Waterfowl Weekend at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum.

"I am amazed at the throngs of people who are now contacting our campaign wanting to help. They all say the same thing - that Steve Troxler won the election fair and square, and that whatever it takes we're going to band together to protect this victory," said Troxler's campaign coordinator, Zane Hedgecock.

As the candidates campaign, a judge will hear the merits of their appeals.

Cobb contends seven legal "defects" in the state board's order for the new election violate North Carolina election laws and disenfranchise voters. He is seeking a stay of the special election until the issues are resolved.

According to The Associated Press, Troxler filed suit Monday, appealing the election board's decision to let voters who didn't cast ballots in the November election to do so on Jan. 11.