GOP could have control of state House
By GARY D. ROBERTSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Republicans apparently gained the edge today in controlling the state House after a recount in Wayne County showed Majority Leader Phil Baddour now trailing in his race.
Baddour, D-Wayne, had an 896-vote lead over Republican Louis Pate after Tuesday's ballots were first counted in their House District 11 race. But Wayne County elections officials discovered a glitch in the voting, and a preliminary recount ending today morning gave Pate a 164-vote lead, county elections chairman Geoff Hulse said.
The House had appeared to be split 60-60 for the next legislative session, but now Republicans could have a 61-59 advantage should the leading candidates in three other close races end up as winners.
A software problem prompted county election officials to retabulate Tuesday's results late Thursday and early today. Hulse said it's likely Baddour or Pate will seek a hand recount, which would be held late next week.
"We feel like that the only certain way to put it to bed is by doing a hand-eye recount," Hulse said.
With Pate's lead, vote totals now show Democrats and Republicans each winning 58 House seats. The GOP leads two other races by narrow margins while a Democrat leads in a third close race.
Democrats have a 62-58 advantage in the House, which may have to return as early as next week to decide whether to override Gov. Mike Easley's first veto.
All 100 counties were reviewing their vote totals today and presenting results to the State Board of Elections. Based on those totals, candidates will have until noon Tuesday to seek a formal recount.
Hulse said voting observers from both parties alerted elections officials after noticing that the number of votes in the U.S. Senate race was lower than the total number of ballots cast.
Elections officials determined that voting machines hadn't counted straight-party ballots, Hulse said. The machines were reprogrammed and the machines counted the ballots again, he said.
The retabulated results show Pate, the mayor of Mount Olive, with 8,503 votes and Baddour with 8,339 votes. Before today, Baddour had 6,058 votes compared to Pate with 5,162 votes.
"It looked like there were a thousand more straight-party Republican voters than there were Democrats," Hulse said.
The straight-party ballot problems didn't affect other legislative races but may affect the margin in the Court of Appeals race between Bill Constangy and Martha Geer.
Baddour, 60, won his first election in 1992, lost to Pate in 1994, then defeated Pate in 1996.
Other state House races that were too close to call after final, unofficial results were Wednesday include:
the District 3 race, where GOP Michael Gorman led Democratic Rep. Alice Underhill by 172 votes;
the District 17 race, where Republican Bonner Stiller led Democratic Rep. David Redwine by 158 votes;
the District 63 race, where Democrat Alice Bordsen led the GOP's Bob Sharpe by 100 votes.
The margins in these races could change after today's vote canvassing by the counties.