The Guilford County Board of Elections will conduct a recount on Friday afternoon of votes in the primary election for the Greensboro City Council at-large race. The request was made by first-time candidate Carla Franklin, who came in seventh place. That was just 51 votes behind political veteran T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, who came in sixth.
Franklin, a former Democrat, now unaffiliated, received 5,108 votes or 9.26 percent. Bellamy-Small, a Democrat and long-time Greensboro elected official, got 5,159 votes or 9.35 percent in the at-large race, according to complete but unofficial election results.
Greensboro City Council races are nonpartisan.
The primary took place on Oct. 7, with the top six vote-getters in the 1o candidate at-large field moving onto the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Early voting for the general election starts on Thursday, Oct. 16, necessitating a quick recount process.
North Carolina law states that in multi-seat races, a candidate can request a recount if the difference between two candidates is less than 1 percent.
It “just made sense” to request a recount because of the closeness of the race, Franklin told The Assembly.
“I wanted to make sure every vote was counted,” she said. “When you have such a small margin, there is a lot of error in some cases. The recount will ensure that every vote is counted. It will confirm whatever the outcome is.”
Charlie Collicutt, director of the Guilford County Board of Elections, said the recount will take place on Friday at 2 p.m. When calculating whether a recount can be requested in a multi-seat election, Collicutt explained, the math works differently than in single-seat races, like mayor or a district representative.
In a race with multiple seats, like at-large, the numbers for just two candidates in question are taken into account. In this case, the vote totals for Franklin and Bellamy-Small are added together for a total of 10,267. Then the proportion of each candidate’s votes of the total is calculated. If that difference is less than 1 percent, a recount can be requested. In this case, Bellamy-Small’s proportion is 50.25 percent to Franklin’s 49.75 percent, which is a .50 percent difference.
Provisional ballots and certain military ballots are still being counted from Tuesday’s election, Collicutt said. Given those factors, the results of the primary election will be finalized by the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 14, two days before early voting starts for the general election.
There are 56 provisional ballots still to be analyzed, Collicutt said. Provisional ballots are given to voters whose eligibility is still being determined. Even if all of those votes were approved by the board of elections, and they all went to one candidate—such as Franklin—the total votes would not exceed the necessary 1 percent threshold, Collicutt said.
After the recount, she would accept the results, Franklin said. She is happy with how she performed, she said.
“I went from a newcomer that maybe not everybody knew going against a veteran like T. Dianne Bellamy-Small,” she said. “That says a lot. I have worked hard over these last few months; I have exceeded the expectations of most.”
Franklin ran on a platform of supporting law enforcement, increasing broadband internet, and launching a tech hub. She is also a strong supporter of charter schools and the founder of Moms of Color for School Choice.
Bellamy-Small is currently the school board representative for District 1 and a supporter of public schools. She has served on the school board since 2016 and formerly represented District 1 on city council from 2003-2013.
Before that, Bellamy-Small represented District 1 on the Greensboro City Council for five terms. She was unseated by Sharon Hightower in 2013 by a margin of just 12 votes. In that race, Bellamy-Small herself requested a recount. The difference, after the recount, was just three votes.
“My comment is to simply let the process work,” Bellamy-Small said of the recount in a statement to The Assembly. “If I prevail, I’d ask Franklin’s supporters to vote for me to be their representative.”