By Jay Almond, News Editor
May 12, 2008 08:31 am
—
After finishing second to Justin Burr in the NC House 67th District Primary vote Tuesday, incumbent Ken Furr is considering filing for a run-off vote.
Furr received 32.9 percent of Tuesday’s vote compared to Burr’s 37.5 across the district.
Furr said Thursday he will seek the runoff only if a statewide runoff is called.
“There are four Democrats within a couple percentage points of each other for commissioner of labor, so a runoff is likely,” Furr said.
“I’m not going to ask for one if a statewide runoff is not called. To do so would cost the local taxpayers too much.”
Furr also said he is being encouraged to seek a runoff by many people, including supporters of Dr. Nalin Mehta, who received 29.6 percent of Tuesday’s vote.
At that mark, Mehta’s supporters could easily swing the outcome of a runoff.
“You’ve got to realize that 63 percent of the people voted against Justin,” Furr said.
“I don’t believe the will of the people has been determined yet.”
As for Burr, he said he’s preparing for a possible runoff and making sure his supporters are ready to vote again.
Getting voters to return to polls for a second time has historically been a difficult task.
Past runoffs, or second primaries, have seldom garnered the voter turnout enjoyed the first time around, Stanly County Board of Elections Director Kim Wilson said.
“There’s a good chance that the second primary will have a lower turnout than the first,” she said.
One reason for that is the exclusion of off-party affiliates from the process.
In this case, the contest is Republican.
That means Republican voters, whether they voted in the last primary or not, and registered unaffiliated voters who voted in the Republican primary would be the voters able to cast deciding ballots in a runoff.
Unofficial results in tightly contested state races still point toward that possibility and the NC House 67th District vote tallies in Stanly County appear to be well within the necessary range for inclusion.
Only after Tuesday’s canvass by the election board will official totals be released and only then can those totals be fully considered for a runoff.
The board will add all provisional totals to the current totals and perform an audit of all reported results to verify count accuracy.
Those final counts will be the focus of formulaic scrutiny to determine whether or not a runoff will be considered.
“For the runoff you take a total of all the ballots cast for that office and multiply it by 40 percent to get a substantial plurality,” Wilson said.
“To take office the top vote-getter must have a vote total that exceeds the substantial plurality.”
When applied to the NC House race for the 67th District seat, Burr’s unofficial total is not a substantial plurality and therefore may be held to a runoff if final results reflect the same.
Candidates in all state races where a substantial plurality was not achieved have until May 15 to file for a runoff.
Jay Almond can be contacted at snaponline21@carolina.rr.com and Jim Lisk can be contacted at snaponline28@carolina.rr.com.
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