GREENSBORO, N.C. — A tight race for Greensboro Mayor leaves Incumbent Nancy Vaughan as the projected winner.
She leads Councilman Justin Outling by 425 votes. Outling has yet to concede the race yet with votes still left to count.
The race left many questions up in the air about what's next in the voting process. WFMY News 2's Grace Holland spoke with two experts on this matter.
Why hasn't Justin Outling conceded the race?
The margin between Vaughan and Outling is currently 1.3 percent of the vote.
As outstanding absentee ballots come in it is possible that the margin could grow or shrink.
If the margin shrinks to less than one percent of the vote separating Outling and Vaughan, Outling could call for a recount.
Could absentee ballots change the results?
County Board of Elections Director, Charlie Collicut said there was no word on how many absentee ballots could come back but they will continue to count them through Friday.
UNCG Political Science professor Dr. Hunter Bacot said absentee ballots don't usually have a big effect on the result.
"It could shift but I doubt it," Bacot said. "Usually after absentee, they break for both candidates. One candidate would really have to dominate absentee, I don't think that's going to happen."
Is it normal for the losing candidate not to concede in a race this close?
Bacot said it's very normal for a candidate to wait to concede in a race this close, just in case it goes into recount territory.
"We’re still 24 hours from the election. There’s no telling what can happen. He shouldn’t concede until all the votes are counted and it’s tabulated and they have a final decision," Bacot said. "He should take advantage and make sure that there weren’t votes missed. I don’t think the results will change very much."
How common is it to see a mayor's race this close?
This is an unusually close race for the mayor's seat. Bacot said the winning candidate gets about 55 percent of the vote while the loser gets about 45 percent. He believes the tight margins came because Outling and Vaughan ran on similar platforms.
"They had a lot of similarities and where there were differences, they weren’t dramatic differences," Bacot said.
He thinks Vaughan won because he said it's easier for an incumbent to be re-elected but said this will likely be a wake up call for her.
Outling was an excellent candidate. You had two great choices so I think it was one of those no-lose contests for the community. I think going forward she does have to do some unification to bring the city back together," Bacot said.
Is 15% for a write-in candidate a lot?
"It’s unusual but it’s not uncommon. I don’t think any of those votes took away from Outling or Vaughan. I think they were just people voting for another candidate or another choice," Bacot said.
The Board of Elections Director said it's hard to know exactly who got those votes, and how many votes they got until all the ballots are counted.
"Chris Meadows got a lot," Collicut said.
Ballots' final approval will come the first week of August.
Then we asked him if Outling could contest the results because three polling locations lost power.
"I guess he could, but there was no interruption of service or voters that didn't vote, so I don't know if that would be accepted," Collicut explained.
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