Davidson election ballot count update...the wait continues

Previously, aShortChronicle told readers that the outstanding provisional and mail in ballots for the local elections would be counted today at 5pm.  That was the plan as of last Thursday.  However, it looks like the waiting will continue a little longer.

According to the Mecklenburg BOE office, a quorum could not be gathered for the counting and it has been rescheduled until Wednesday at noon.

Also, the number of outstanding ballots to be counted is getting narrowed down.  Per the BOE, there are 6 additional mail in ballots and 12 provisional ballots for Davidson.  Depending on the breakdown of the provisional ballots (whether they are "full" or "partial" ballots) there may or may not be enough to swing the election results for 5th and 6th place between David Sitton and Shana Erber.

A "full" ballot is one where the person voting is maybe in the wrong precinct but still receives a ballot for all their races - going to Town Hall instead of Hopewell on election day if you live in River Run for example.  You would get a full Davidson paper ballot and all of the choices and races would be there.  A "partial" ballot is where someone went to the wrong precinct on election day and only gets to vote on the items that would have been on the ballot in their correct precinct.  An example of this might be a Davidson voter who went to a precinct by where they work in Charlotte thinking they could vote there.  On election day that Charlotte precinct would only have paper ballots with the Charlotte races and the CMS school bonds.  The Davidson voter could only vote for the school bonds because it is the only race that would have been on the ballot in Davidson as well.

So, right now,  with only 8 votes separating the candidates it looks like there could be enough votes to swing the race outcome, but the odds are unlikely that it will.  After Wednesday comes "canvasing" on Friday, and then if anyone wants a recount it can be requested then.  Regardless of Wednesday's outcome, that's certainly a possibility.

And you thought counting votes was simple...