LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Board of Elections during a meeting on Tuesday decided to hold a recount of a District Court judicial race on Monday.
Jack Moody, whose lead for a District Court judgeship went away when provisional ballots were counted on Thursday, has asked for a recount. Moody, a Republican, is eligible because the certified election results show him trailing Vanessa Burton by 71 votes, well inside the threshold of 1 percent of all votes cast.
Steve Stone, Board of Elections chairman, said the recount will start at 8 a.m. and could take as long as 16 hours. He said multiple machines would be used as the recount would go precinct by precinct.
Moody led by 77 ballots before the provisionals were added, but received 148 fewer provisional votes, making the official tally 15,384 to 15,313. Provisional ballots are cast when there is a question about a voter’s eligibility. The ballot is cast and the Board of Elections later makes a determination on whether or not the ballot is valid. More than 300 provisionals cast on Election Day were deemed invalid.
Moody, who works in the Public Defender’s Office, has twice been the Robeson County Bar Association’s pick to fill a vacant District Court seat, but in each instance, in 2002 and then 2017, the governor picked someone else.
Burton is an assistant prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office.
The winner will replace Herbert Richardson, who is retiring after being a District Court judge since the late 1970s.
