After four-hour hearing, Foster still mayor-elect

By LAUREN KING , The Virginian-Pilot     November 19, 2005

ELIZABETH CITY ? After more than four hours of testimony and deliberation, the Pasquotank County Board of Elections decided to dismiss Councilman Bill Lehmann?s protest of the Nov. 8 mayoral run-off.

The Rev. Charles L. Foster came out 17 votes ahead of Lehmann in the election and subsequent recount.

Following the board?s decision Friday night, Lehmann stepped to the podium and called Foster to the front of the room.

?Rev. Foster, I should say mayor-elect, I concede,? Lehmann said, drawing the applause of the crowd at the Pasquotank County Courthouse and the board that had just dismissed his protest. 
Lehmann then took his Elizabeth City ?Harbor of Hospitality? pin from his jacket lapel and offered it to Foster. While he pinned it on Foster?s jacket, he choked back a few tears.

Foster accepted his concession and encouraged everyone to come together and work to make Elizabeth City a stronger community.

?I am going to do everything in my power to give excellent leadership,? he said.

Although the night ended with applause and a standing ovation from the 50 who remained throughout the four-hour proceedings on Friday night, it was a much different crowd at the 4 p.m. start.

About 100 people crammed into the courtroom. Lehmann and Holly Koerber, a Lehmann campaign coordinator, presented their case that assumed there was a problem with voting machines and that it was clearly evidenced by the unusually high number of blank ballots cast.

Typically, there are several ?under votes,? or blank ballots cast in which the voter did not choose a candidate or opt to write in a name. Those figures are frequently overlooked because some people may be interested in voting only in one race. For instance, the voter may cast a ballot for mayor but not a city council seat.

But there was only one race in Elizabeth City this week, and 42 blank ballots were cast.

Koerber said that according to her research, in the past 36 years, there were 13 races in Elizabeth City where there was only one question on the ballot. In all of those races, she said there was only one blank ballot cast.

?What we would like to know is why there are so many more this time,? Koerber said near the end of the proceedings.

Linda Page, Board of Elections director, replied, ?history can change.?

Lehmann called more than a dozen witnesses who had voted in different precincts to testify that they had trouble with the machines on election day. The complaints included people who had to make several attempts to his name on the touch screen.

Members of the Board of Elections asked each witness whether they felt confident they had voted for their candidate when they left the booth. Most agreed that they did.

Following Lehmann?s two-hour presentation, the board called its two staff members and several of its election judges to describe some of the problems with the machines and voter behavior, which included people deciding to leave before pressing the red button to cast their vote or saying they weren?t going to vote because they were expecting a City Council race.

William T. Skinner, a board member, also pointed out that during the Oct. 11 election there were 45 blank ballots cast in the mayor?s race.

?You cannot undo what has been done,? Skinner said.

In the end, the board decided that it was the voter?s responsibility to follow the instructions that were posted in each polling place, on the screens of the voting machines and, if all else failed, they could have asked for the assistance of a poll worker.

The board voted unanimously to dismiss Lehmann?s protest saying there was no substantial evidence that cast doubt on the election results.