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Partin, who cited voter fraud as the reason for challenging the election, now has 24 hours to formally appeal the board's decision and protest the election to the North Carolina Board of Elections. The board's ruling establishes James Mills as the mayor-elect.
In a conversation with the Daily Herald this morning, Partin said he will pursue the protest to the state. “I am very disappointed in the Halifax County Board of Elections. It did not appear they were looking for the truth at all. All of the research we have done and the information we provided - 15 abandoned lots shown as voters' addresses, 11 out-of-town voters, two voters who voted twice. None of that was considered or even looked into,” he said.
Partin, who served 10 years as Scotland Neck's mayor, feels he was unfairly depicted by some members of the press as protesting the election over a single provisional ballot. He asserted the single questioned ballot was all that was necessary for the Halifax Board of Elections to allow his protest and hold a formal hearing.
“I am not just a sore loser in this matter,” Partin explained, “That is how I am being portrayed in a News & Observer article and that is not the case at all. I want to right a wrong. The Halifax board's responsibility is to assure everyone a fair and honest election and they have not done that in this case. Are they just going to let all of this go away? People voting twice and using false addresses? This will keep happening if they don't do something about it,” Partin declared.
He said his research uncovered enough fraudulent votes to overturn the results in Commissioner Kenneth Branch's failed re-election bid and that alone should merit holding another election. Last week, the board rejected Branch's request for a formal hearing into perceived voting irregularities in his race.
The Board of Election's written decision in the Partin protest was released late Tuesday afternoon.
While calling a formal hearing based on a single discrepancy, the board's final ruling noted, “That taking into consideration the questionable provisional ballot and the two voters who voted twice, the margin between James Mills and the protester, Robert Benson Partin, would have been 461 to 361.”
The ruling goes on to say there “would not have been a substantial change in the results of the election.”
Pending Partin's appeal to the state, Mills will take office next month. He told reporters Tuesday, “We can move on, and we can heal and grow and build a much better town. I look forward to doing that. I look to work with all the people across the divide.”
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