Rollercoaster Runoffs
Elections are supposed to produce definitive, by-the-numbers winners and losers, but the end game in several local races from Tuesday night’s primary likely have a ways to go before crossing the finish line.
The most confusing, not surprisingly, involves the 12-candidate mishmash Democrats fielded for the at-large county board primary. That’s where Kim Ratliff and Pat Cotham were the two top vote-getters, nabbing 15.9 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively, of the total votes cast. But because the race had multiple candidates, if no one received 40 percent of the votes, the top two vote-getters automatically advance to a runoff and the third and fourth place vote-getters also advance. That’s per the county’s website.
But according to Mecklenburg Elections Director Michael Dickerson, the runoff will be between the third- and fourth-place finishers (Trevor M. Fuller and Marc Gustafson who received, respectively, 11.6 percent and 11.2 percent of the votes) to grab the last of three at-large spots and advance to the general election to face the three Republican at-large candidates who advanced Tuesday night (Michael Hobbs, James F. Peterson and Wayne Powers).
Dickerson said Ratliff and Cotham are excluded from a Democrat at-large runoff because they both received more than a so-called “substantial plurality” of the votes cast, even though both received less than 16 percent of the total vote.
Confused? Here’s how the math works, according to Dickerson: the total number of votes cast was 176,650, which in a multi-candidate at-large commissioners race is then divided by the number of seats up for grab, in this case three. That shrinks the vote total to 58,883, which is then multiplied by .40 to yield a target number of 23,553 votes needed to gain a substantial plurality. Ratliff and Cotham both exceeded that total, leaving Fuller and Gustafson for a runoff.
Republicans have their own runoff brewing for the District 5 seat on the county board. That’s where it’s likely that top vote-getters Matthew Ridenhour and Sarah Cherne will square off for a July 17 rematch to decide who advances to face Democrat Paula H. Harvey in November’s general election.
Unofficial totals from Tuesday night show Ridenhour edging Cherne for first place by a 6,523-vote to 6,243-vote margin, and both easily outpacing Bill Griffin (3,968 votes) and Ken Lindholm (2,185 votes). Cherne has already said she will call for a runoff, but has until May 17 to officially file the request with the board of elections.
Meanwhile, it looks like the $1.1 million former state senator Robert Pittenger gave his own campaign was only enough to buy a runoff in his bid for Sue Myrick’s seat in the 9th Congressional District. He appears headed to a runoff against incumbent Mecklenburg Commissioner Jim Pendergraph. Pittenger emerged from the 10-candidate GOP field as the top vote-getter, but fell short of the 40 percent he needed to win outright. Pittenger nabbed about 32 percent of the vote, with Pendergraph pulling about 25 percent.
Full election results from Tuesday’s primary can be found here.
UPDATE: I overlooked the north Mecklenburg neck of the woods, where Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte appears headed for a runoff against John Aneralla in the state Senate District 41 race. Unofficial results from the GOP primary show Tarte with 37.6 percent (6,415 votes) to Aneralla’s 36.2 percent (6,177 votes). House Guest columnist Sharon Hudson has a good rundown here of the candidates.
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