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Iredell election votes get final OK
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Published: November 11, 2009
The votes had all been tallied, recounted, sampled and, in some cases, recounted again. Then the verifiable provisional ballots were assigned to the proper candidates.
And finally, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Iredell County's municipal elections — having been properly canvassed — were certified by the county's Board of Elections and filed with the state.
But before all that official business could be approved, there remained the matter of plucking a name out of a basket.
Iredell County Board of Elections Director Becky Galliher had been saying since last Tuesday's election results came in that the race for the final seat on the Harmony Board of Aldermen would have to be decided by lot.
"Lot" is the word that actually appears in the town's charter as the means to break ties in elections.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the term, by definition, means, "An object used in making a determination or choice at random."
It was decided by Galliher and other Board of Election members that the names of the two candidates who tied — incumbent Alderwoman Carolyn Moore and write-in candidate Eddie Gaither — would each be typed onto five strips of paper.
"The pieces were of exact equal size," explained Board of Elections Member Jim Dobson. "They were then folded, closed and shuffled."
And then a single slip was blindly chosen by Board of Elections Chairman Alan Carpenter.
The name on the slip — and the newest member of the Harmony Board of Elections — Gaither's.
"Mrs. Moore was here to watch the process," said Galliher, who did not wish to comment on Moore's reaction to losing the election by a drawing other than to say, "She probably wasn't thrilled about it."
Gaither and Moore each received 26 votes and tied for fourth place in the four-person, at-large election.
Another close contest, the Mooresville mayor's race, was certified Tuesday with challenger Chris Montgomery defeating incumbent Bill Thunberg by 14 votes.
The final tally was 1,065 votes for Montgomery and 1,051 for Thunberg.
Galliher said the final cost of the November election had not yet been totaled. But, she said, Statesville's October election cost taxpayers $13,826.
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