The North Carolina Board of Elections on Dec. 17, 2025. (Photo: Screenshot)
It’s unusual for the North Carolina Board of Elections to order a redo of an election. But Wednesday, they did it twice: once in a mayor’s race where one candidate now leads by a single vote, and again for a small Hertford County town where 7 of the 25 people who cast ballots weren’t eligible.
The State Board of Elections ordered new elections in the races for Morehead City mayor and for Harrellsville mayor and town council in Hertford County.
In the Morehead City mayor’s race, challenger Lee Stiles leads incumbent Jerry Jones by one vote. One of Jones’ lawyers, Christopher Stock, told the board that two men who planned to vote for the incumbent were improperly turned away when they should have been offered provisional ballots.
“The fail-safe process we have in the state was not used,” he said.
Another of Jones’ lawyers, Phil Thomas, requested the board permit those two voters to cast ballots now.
“It addresses only the immediate harm,” Thomas said. “It restores the election result to what it would have been. It avoids rerunning the entire election.”
A new election would be an alternative option, Thomas said.
But board members said the law won’t allow the two voters to cast ballots after the fact.
“Poll workers were not correctly trained,” said Board member Siobhan Millen. “We don’t know how many people were turned away.”
Stiles asked the board to declare him the winner, but added “I don’t mind going out and beating Mr. Jones again.”
Stiles’ lawyer, Hart Miles, asked for a new election.
Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV agreed that a new election is the proper solution. “We can’t simply offer two ballots to the people who presented themselves,” he said.
Ordering new elections is rare, Eggers said. And the Morehead City mayor’s race is proof that every vote matters. “A single vote absolutely is important.”
In the Hertford County case, no one signed up to run for Harrellsville mayor, but voters could write in candidate names.
Three people signed up to run for five seats on the Harrellsville town council. Voters could also write in names for those seats.
The Hertford County Board of Elections didn’t certify the Harrellsville results because of “irregularities affecting the integrity and accuracy of the election.”
All 25 people who voted did so in person on Election Day. They were not asked to sign “authorization to vote” forms, a Hertford elections board document says. Poll workers did not follow procedures for verifying voter eligibility, the document says, and only eighteen of the 25 people who voted in the Harrellsville elections were actually eligible.
The State Board voted to rerun the entire election in March.
“Hopefully, the precinct workers will know how to properly process voters and give them correct ballots,” Eggers said.
An analysis of last month’s municipal election results by Common Cause North Carolina found seven contests ended in a tie. Another 15 races were decided by one vote, the organization said in a press release. In 14 races, the winner finished with a two-vote edge.
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