UCW on Gardner victory

The Union County Weekly has an article up on Daune Gardner's re-election. It was not as close as the commissioner race, of course.

A snippet:

With the win, she became just the second challenged incumbent Tuesday night in western Union County, along with Mineral Springs Mayor Rick Becker, to win re-election.

“That was very gratifying and humbling,” Gardner said. “I’m looking forward to the next four years. We’ve done a lot of work, got a lot accomplished.”

...

Gardner received the majority of votes at the Waxhaw Volunteer Fire Department, Waxhaw Bible Church and Kensington Elementary precincts. Underwood won the majority of votes at the Waxhaw Elementary precinct. All total, 17.75 percent of Waxhaw’s 6,158 voters cast ballots.

Read the whole thing.

UCW on recount

The Union County Weekly has a nice piece on the Waxhaw commissioner race, where Sean Poccia currently leads Martin Lane by four votes and Phillip Gregory by seven votes. The latter has requested a recount.

But first, provisional ballots must be checked. A snippet:

Whitley said there are currently 101 provisional votes throughout the county that his department needs to sort through before Tuesday, which could also affect the final tally. Provisional ballots are those that have to be checked, if a person voted in the wrong precinct or filled out information incorrectly.

Please note that this is county wide total; there is no word thus far how many of the provisional ballots apply to the Waxhaw races.

Luckily, we've got a good group on commissioner candidates this time around, so we should be okay with whoever ultimately wins.

Stay tuned to the Union County Weekly for more information on this as it becomes available.

11/11/11

Any self-respecting blogger worth his salt should get a post up on 11/11/11 at 11:11am. So here's mine.

To add something Waxhaw-related, half of my campaign signs disappeared from my yard on Wednesday. The kids and I had planned on keeping them for posterity's sake (much to my wife's chagrin), but some of the faster-acting politicians got to them first. I'm talking about you Daune Gardner, Phillip Gregory, and Sean Poccia.

I quickly gathered up the signs of Martin Lane, Mike Stewart, and Lisa Thornton and hid them deep in the bowels of my garage, so if they come looking for them, they will never find them.

Veteran's Day Ceremony

I should probably mention that Waxhaw is having a Veteran's Day Ceremony that kicks off in a little less than an hour.

From the town website:

You are invited to the 2011 Veteran’s Day Ceremony in historic downtown Waxhaw. The program is slated for Friday, 11-11-11 beginning at 12 noon and will be followed by a light luncheon. It will take place in front of the Waxhaw Military Wall of Honor located in the East North Main Street block in historic downtown. The program will be emceed by Commissioner Joyce Blythe and will include: the changing of flags by The UC EMS Color Guard and singing of The National Anthem by Caren Bigelow Morgan. Members of American Legion Post #208 will lead the program including Commander James Grainger.

Check it out if you're around town today.

Forever Grateful tomorrow

Thanks to all those who served or are currently serving our country!

I mentioned this once before, but I just wanted to remind you about the Forever Grateful tribute put together by Scott Farb and Ken Corn that is taking place all day on Saturday. It's a free event with souvenir bags for the kids.

A description:

This FREE day-long event will feature uniforms from every war the American Soldier has taken part in, from the French and Indian War to modern day. Reenactors in uniforms from different periods will enhance your visit to the exhibit. Photographs, helmets, equipment, weapons and war trophies will also be on display. Children who attend will receive a free souvenir package to take home from the event. The exhibit will also feature streaming video shot by local resident Ken Corn, who served as an embedded photojournalist in Iraq.

For more information, please contact event organizers Scott Farb or Ken Corn via Facebook message, or via email, at MarchingThruTime@gmail.com - this is a FREE event, and we certainly hope to see you there!

Plus he added this later:

This event is shaping up to be something big - it will be a memorable day. Come out and see military displays, the likes of which the town has never seen before. We are adding a special display on Medal of Honor recipients, and the US Army Nurse Corps. We hope to see you here!

We'll have to make our way there at some point, although the we've got family in town and a birthday party.

Village Scribe on mayoral race

Mark over at the Village Scribe talks a little about Waxhaw's mayoral race. A snippet:

To satisfy the nattering nabobs who take issue with the results of a three-way race and apply the negative, I thought I’d expand it and cover that aspect.

So, by Waxhaw voting as they did,

56% Voted against Daune Gardner
67% Voted against Lisa Thornton
76% Voted against Gary Underwood

There you have it, for all you “glass half empty” types, more people voted against Lisa Thornton and Gary Underwood than voted against Daune Gardner.

I think this was pretty evident from the vote totals, but it is another way to look at it. I'm guessing this is a response to these "nattering nabobs" pointing out that only 43% of Waxhaw's actual voters (which is a small percentage of Waxhaw's registered voters and an even smaller percentage of Waxhaw residents for that matter) voted to re-elect Daune Gardner.

Recount requested

Per a Union County Weekly Facebook post, Phillip Gregory has requested a recount. He finished a mere 7 votes behind Sean Poccia. And Martin Lane could also benefit from the recount since he was 4 votes behind Poccia.

A follow-up comment from the UCW provided some more information:

Mr. Gregory had to fall within 9 votes in order to qualify for the recount. Scott's right, in that he was seven behind Sean Poccia. John Whitney, Union County Elections Director, said there are several provisional ballots to be counted between now and Tuesday. After that vote is complete, then Whitley will present Gregory's request to the Board of Elections next Tuesday, where the count will be done

So if I am understanding this correctly, these provisional ballots must be counted before the recount is to begin. So depending on the specific number of provisional ballots, it's possible that these could make the race even closer or change the results before the recount is under way.

I guess we'll have to stay tuned.