SOUTHPORT — The Brunswick County Board of Elections officially certified election results Friday. In Southport’s Alderman Ward 1 race, Robert Carroll was confirmed the winner after a recount was issued by his opponent.
READ MORE: Southport candidate requests vote recount in aldermen ward 1 race
Mike Crosbie sent a formal letter requesting the recount to the Brunswick BOE on Monday. State law allows a recount if the difference between candidates is within 1% of total votes cast. Nine votes separated Carroll and Crosbie, though that changed after Friday’s recount.
Both unaffiliated candidates, though municipal elections are nonpartisan, Crosbie lost one vote, bringing the margin up to a 10-vote spread.
Board of Elections Director Sara Lavere confirmed the small shift in totals came from identifying two additional undervotes. There were 479 undervotes in total in Southport. An undervote is one that isn’t counted toward any candidate in the race. This typically happens when the voter either intentionally leaves the selection blank or when the mark made does not meet the optical scanner’s required standards.
“Those ballots were likely lightly marked or checked,” Lavere told the board.
She explained further to Port City Daily that if the voter’s mark is very light, incomplete, or mostly outside the rectangle, the scanner may not interpret it as a vote.
“Those ballots were originally scanned on a precinct-based scanner on Election Day,” she said. “During the recount, all ballots were scanned on a high-speed central scanner. Differences in how the scanners detect marginal or lightly marked ballots can cause a shift like this. We cannot definitively say why the difference occurred, but we will be looking into it further.”
Approximately 2,088 ballots resulted in small adjustments to the totals, though Carroll and the top vote-getter in the race, Karen Mosteller, had unchanged tallies. Two seats were up for grabs in the race, with incumbent Mosteller securing hers as well.
The final tallies are:
- Karen Mosteller: 989 votes
- Robert Carroll: 920 votes
- Mike Crosbie: 910 votes
- David Miller: 767 votes
Crosbie wasn’t available for immediate comment on Friday, though this will be updated upon response.
The recount was conducted on machines Friday and took around two hours to complete. Under state law, Crosbie can request a second hand-to-eye recount within 24 hours of the machine recount results being finalized.
Carroll, who has served since 2021, said he was “pretty confident in the results,” but praised the BOE’s recount process.
“I had not seen a recount process, but it’s certainly a very secure process,” Carroll said. “It played out exactly how it should. We’re given an opportunity for a recount, that opportunity was taken advantage of and now here we are with the results.”
Addressing the narrow margins and voters who supported his challengers, Carroll said he did not see Crosbie and Miller as opponents, expressing respect for their “positive” campaigns.
“For the people that did not vote for me, I’m still here for them. I’m still here to serve them, to listen,” Carroll added.
He ran a campaign focused on strengthening the city’s infrastructure and budget and ensuring greater fiscal stability — two of the pledges he made during his campaign.
Carroll relayed his immediate goal is to de-escalate the current political climate in the town. The call for unity comes after a period of political tension that has seemingly grown, including allegations of political weaponization in the Alt-Hatem alleyway dispute and the recent passing of a new policy aimed at restoring decorum during public meetings.
“First and foremost, we need to take the temperature down a bit,” Carroll said. “We need to bring civility back to the meetings and we need to have respect for one another.”
Mosteller and Carroll, along with Alderman Ward 2 winner Paul Gross — taking over from Frank Lai, who didn’t seek re-election — and former Mayor Joe Pat Hatem, returning after winning a rematch against current Mayor Rich Alt, will be formally sworn in at the first Board of Alderman meeting in December.
Have tips or suggestions for Charlie Fossen? Email charlie@localdailymedia.com
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