Incumbents hold on against stiff challenges in primary

Editor’s Note: Since full unofficial vote totals were not available until 11:40 p.m. in Alleghany County, candidates for most primary ballot races were not contacted prior to presstime due to the late hour. Since all the candidates could not be contacted, no candidate comments are included in this story. All results are considered unofficial until the canvass and provisional ballot totals are not included.

With numerous local candidates on the ballot, an estimated 1,900 local voters of more than 6,500 registered, cast ballots in Tuesday's primary election. Official turnout numbers were not included in the preliminary results released late Tuesday night by the Alleghany Board of Elections.

The county’s new Ivotronic voting machines by Elections Systems and Software had some malfunctions, with at least four machines having paper feed problems. Of those machines, only one was down for the duration of voting Tuesday. The election was the first full-scale test of the machines, of which the county has purchased 28 after the State Board of Elections disallowed the use of the county’s former machines, EasyVote 2000 by Fidlar and Chambers. ES&S makes the only approved machines that may be used in the state of North Carolina. According to data from the board of elections, several 'emergency ballots,’ or paper ballots, were cast. A total of 59 emergency ballots were cast countywide, with 25 in Glade Creek, 31 in Gap Civil, one in Piney Creek and two in Cranberry. Those ballots caused the results to be delayed, along with a State Board of Elections error that put one candidate on the wrong ticket for the final vote totals. William "Bill" Caudill was listed as a Democrat on the state’s Web site, a problem that had to be corrected before his final totals could be posted.

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