11/17/2006

By TIM WHITMIRE  / Associated Press

Rep. Robin Hayes' slim lead over challenger Larry Kissell narrowed to just 400 votes Friday, as six counties in the 8th Congressional District reported official election results in a race that appears headed for a recount.

Still outstanding were official results from four counties — Hoke, Mecklenburg, Richmond and Stanly — that accounted for slightly less than 40 percent of the votes cast in the Nov. 7 election.

Meanwhile, state House Speaker Jim Black waited along with GOP challenger Hal Jordan for the updated results from Mecklenburg County. Black, the Democratic speaker who has faced months of legal and ethical scrutiny tied to his campaign finances and the state lottery, led Jordan by just seven votes in unofficial Election Day results.

As of 1 p.m., elections boards in Anson, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Montgomery, Scotland and Union counties had all reported official results to the State Board of Elections in Raleigh. Those results include double-checked precinct results and any provisional ballots that county boards decided should be included.

Combining the official results with the still unofficial totals from the four outstanding counties, Hayes led Kissell 60,676 votes to 60,276.

In unofficial results reported election night, Hayes led Kissell by some 450 votes out of more than 120,000 cast — a margin that led the four-term incumbent to claim victory, but less than the 1 percentage point margin needed for Kissell to demand a recount.

Kissell, a schoolteacher whose grass-roots campaign ran much closer than expected to the well-funded Hayes, has said he intends to seek a machine recount, then possibly a hand recount of optical scan ballots cast in the race.

Hayes' attorneys have petitioned to have the bulk of the provisional ballots cast in the race thrown out, a tactic that drew criticism from Kissell and the state Democratic Party. Provisional ballots are filled out by voters whose names do not show up on precinct rolls on Election Day, and Democrats are counting on those votes to narrow or erase Hayes' margin.

"A desperate Robin Hayes is trying to disqualify valid voters who have the right to have their vote counted," North Carolina Democratic chair Jerry Meek said in a statement Friday.

In Mecklenburg County, the elections board voted Thursday to count 942 of 1,472 provisional ballots cast there on Election Day. It was not known how many of those applied to the 8th District, which covers only part of the county, or the state House race between Black and Jordan; the validated provisionals were to be counted Friday.