ELECTION 2019
TLR Staff Report
The Orange County Board of Elections will conduct a recount of the Chapel Hill Town Council race November 21 to determine who won the last of four seats on the governing panel.
According to official results of the Nov. 5 balloting, Tai Huynh edged out incumbent Nancy Oates for the final seat by just two votes — 3,768 for Huynh to 3,766 for Oates for Orange County. In percentage terms, that was 13.19 percent to 13.08 percent. The margin is 24 votes when the part of Chapel Hill that is Durham County votes are included, as required by state law.
According to the relevant state statute, a candidate “shall have the right to demand a recount of the votes if the difference between the votes for that candidate and the votes for a prevailing candidate is not more than one percent of the total votes cast in the ballot item, or in the case of a multiseat ballot item not more than one percent of the votes cast for those two candidates.”
The request for a recount must be made in writing and must be received by the county board of elections by 5 p.m. on the first business day after the board has completed an election canvass. On Nov. 15, Oates made an official request for the recount, which was granted the same day.
Incumbent Jessica Anderson was the top vote-getter in the race for the council seats, while Amy Ryan and incumbent Michael Parker also won.
The official recount will begin at 9 a.m. at the Orange County Board of Elections and at 7 pm at the Durham Board of Elections.
The final margin was 23 votes, not two. Your story is not counting the Durham county votes in the race.
Saying, “as required by state law” as a way to dismiss the votes of Chapel Hill citizens in Durham County does you, as reporters, no favors and misleads your readers. Of course, all the votes of all Chapel Hill citizens count. In Mebane, votes of both Orange and Alamance count too.
Here’s the primary source for the final vote post-recount: https://er.ncsbe.gov/?election_dt=11%2F05%2F2019&county_id=0&office=CCL&contest=680002
24 vote margin for Huynh
Update:
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/11/chtc-recount-1122