In a key election race this year, the Cumberland County Board of Education saw 15 candidates battling for just six seats. The victors, according to uncertified election results, include Mary Hales, Deanna Turner Jones, Delores Bell, Jackie Warner, Susan Williams and Terra Jordan.

The Board of Education is responsible for the governance of Cumberland County Schools, the public school district. There are nine seats on the board, including six district seats and three at-large members. The six district seats were up for reelection. 

Unofficial election results as of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday showed that incumbents Alicia Jones Chisolm, Donna Blackmon Vann and Nathan Warfel will not be serving another term on the Board of Education. 

State Sen. Tom McInnis will continue representing Cumberland County in the N.C. General Assembly after easily fending off Democratic challenger Maurice (Butch) Holland Jr. on Tuesday.

According to unofficial results as of 2 a.m. Wednesday, McInnis received 62.89% of the ballots counted so far. That is 66,916 ballots. In comparison, unofficial results showed Holland received 37.11% of ballots counted.  

District 21 includes most of Cumberland County, except for Fayetteville, and all of neighboring Moore County. The district is heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans, making McInnis’ victory essentially guaranteed. Moore County is considered a red county and the rural areas of Cumberland County, included in District 21, also tend to vote conservative. 

Josh Ballard clinched the sole seat up for election this year on the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors up for election this year, defeating incumbent Lena Lloyd Simmons and fellow challenger Kristal Watts.

The five-person Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors oversees programs to help landowners prevent soil erosion, protect water resources and other related natural resources from abuse and deterioration, the board’s website says.

The unofficial results released early Wednesday by the Board of Elections showed:

• 42,009 votes for Ballard, or 37.34%
• 36,072 for incumbent Supervisor Simmons, 32.07%
• 33,414 for Watts, 29.70%

There also were 999 write-in votes.

Incumbent Democratic Cumberland County Commissioner Toni Stewart, the board’s vice chairperson, came in last place among the six candidates who were running for District 2’s three seats on the board.

Democrat Kirk deViere and Republicans Pavan Patel and Henry Tyson, won the District 2 race for the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, according to unofficial returns released early Wednesday.

District 2 is a three-seat multi-member district. The three Democratic and three Republican candidates all ran against each other; the top three vote-getters won the three seats.

The results:

• deViere, winner with 41,097 votes
• Patel, winner with 38,379 votes
• Tyson, winner with 37,524 votes
• Republican Peter Pappas, lost with 37,309 votes
• Democrat Karla Icaza, lost with 36,763 votes
• Stewart, lost with 36,115 votes

State Sen. Val Applewhite will hold onto her seat in the state legislature after a victory over Republican challenger Semone Pemberton and Libertarian challenger Steven Swinton on Tuesday.

Applewhite is the incumbent and was elected to her first term in the state senate in 2022. According to unofficial results as of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Applewhite received 54,761 votes, or 62.81% of ballots counted so far. She leads the district by 25,163 votes. In comparison, Pemberton received 33.95% of ballots counted, while Swinton received 3.24%.

Cumberland County voters renewed two-term Republican incumbent Diane Wheatley’s seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives, according to unofficial election results. 

The unofficial results on Wednesday morning showed Wheatley, who will continue to represent county residents living near the I-95 corridor, earning 24,536 votes. The almost 58% margin of the voter share Wheatley earned is almost the same as in the 2022 midterm elections when Wheatley beat out former district representative and Democrat Elmer Floyd. Wheatley has not lost an election to represent the 43rd District since she first ran in 2020.

Charles Smith will again represent the North Carolina House of Representatives 44th District after defending his seat against Republican challenger Freddie de la Cruz.

The 44th District is a Democrat stronghold in Cumberland County. Unofficially election results show Smith earning 20,612 votes, or 62.20% of ballots counted so far.

Smith is a single-term incumbent. He was first elected to represent the 44th District in 2022 when he ran unopposed after beating out Terry Johnson in the Democratic primary. 

Democrat Mike Colvin was unofficially declared the winner in the race for North Carolina’s House of Representatives 42nd District at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday. Colvin secured over 17,000 votes, or 74.36% of ballots counted so far.

The 46-year-old, pro-choice funeral director will represent Spring Lake upon arriving in Raleigh in 2025. A Cumberland County native, Colvin has worked with local elected officials and community leaders all his life. The work earned him the endorsement of outgoing 42nd District N.C. House Representative and Democrat Marvin Lucas.

BREAKING: Donald Trump wins North Carolina. #APRaceCall at 11:18 p.m. EST. https://t.co/FjgpZFcJ4E

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 6, 2024

When the polls closed at 7:30 p.m., voters who were still in line were allowed to stay in line and vote. Some continued to process votes for hours.

In Spring Lake, the final voter finished at 10:30 p.m., Board of Elections Chairperson Irene Grimes said late Tuesday.

And in Manchester precinct, which serves Fort Liberty and part of Fayetteville, the polling site closed by around 11:25 p.m.

Earlier Tuesday, Grimes said an unusually large number of soldiers turned out this year, creating long lines that caused at least eight precincts to continue balloting after 7:30 p.m.

The latest on the wait for the election results in Cumberland County, per Elections Board member Linda Devore at 11:02 p.m.

Hundreds of more absentee ballots arrived on Tuesday. These will need to be opened, their accompanying paperwork examined by hand, and then counted.

In the Election Day totals, three of the 77 Cumberland County precincts remain outstanding

Approximately 99,000 early voting ballots are to be counted plus 5,800 absentee ballots previously received.

Daylight was breaking, and the doors to the R. Max Abbott Middle School polling site were about to open for those of us anticipating this Election Day, and what would be the fate of candidates. 

Political surrogates already were gathering for that final push of persuasion for their candidates, be it for county commissioner, the board of education, the state senate, the state house, the gubernatorial race between Democrat Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, and surely the heated battle for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman to win the U.S. presidency against former President Donald J. Trump. 

“We’re ready,” longtime precinct volunteer Brenda Martin said just before 6:30 a.m. 

Cumberland County has begun posting election results, but as of 10:15 p.m., these only included ballots cast on Election Day. And not all of those had been counted.

The Manchester and Spring Lake precincts serving the Fort Liberty area were still not reported.

Earlier Tuesday evening, Elections Board Chairperson Irene Grimes said a large number of soldiers had turned out, and there were lines of voters still in line past the closing of the polls at 7:30 p.m.

Elections Board Member Linda Devore told CityView that early voting ballots would follow the Election Day results. This was 98,684 ballots, CityView previously reported.

Absentee ballots were still being tabulated, too, Devore said around 9:30 p.m.

The Cumberland County Board of Elections is working on processing a large group of absentee ballots, said board member Linda Devore around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Early voting sites are closing out, Devore said. The board expects absentees to be counted last.

“Absentees are not close to [being] completely tabulated yet,” Devore said in a text message to CityView. “Still slicing open envelopes.” 

As of 9:20 p.m., unofficial election results for Cumberland County are not yet available.

The final two voters to cast their ballots at the Kiwanis Recreation Center trickled out of the center’s doors Tuesday night. They left minutes after the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Candidates and their campaigners were already packing up their tents and signs.

An estimated 23,000 Cumberland County voters cast their ballots on Election Day as of 8:35 p.m., according to Irene Grimes, chair of the Cumberland County Board of Elections.

Some Cumberland County voting precincts stayed open after 7:30 p.m. because there were lines of voters waiting to cast ballots, county Board of Elections Chairperson Irene Grimes said Tuesday night.

If voters are in line at 7:30 p.m., when the polls close, by law every voter in line at that time is allowed to stay in line and vote.

The lines at the Cumberland precincts appear to be due to an influx of soldiers from Fort Liberty, Grimes said. She heard reports that someone spread word on post that soldiers need to vote today and that they could vote at any precinct in Cumberland County, regardless of whether they are registered to vote locally.

How many soldiers? “What I heard is ‘a lot.’ That’s all I can tell you,” Grimes said.

If a voter isn’t registered to vote in Cumberland County, they must cast a provisional ballot, Grimes said. A provisional ballot is not counted immediately, but is counted later after the Board of Elections examines the accompanying paperwork with the ballot to determine whether the voter is allowed by law to vote in Cumberland County.

When a voter casts a provisional ballot, Grimes said, it requires more work for the election workers to process the ballot at the polls, which takes time.

Grimes didn’t have an exact total of how many precincts were staying open late. “At last count there was at least eight of them,” she said. Cumberland County has 77 precincts.

Shortly before 8 p.m., Grimes wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how long it would take for the lines to clear.

As the results start rolling in, please take a moment to become a CityView member and show your support for our election coverage — whether you’ve been enjoying the live blog, or our coverage leading up to Election Day. Reader support is key to keeping independent journalism alive and flourishing.

Crowd sizes are small at the College Lakes Recreation Center polling place located off Rosehill Road Tuesday afternoon, with CityView observing just a few dozen voters trickling in to cast their ballots. Among these slim crowds, many would-be voters are being turned away at the door for one main reason — they are at the wrong polling place. 

While the early voting period, which ended Saturday afternoon, allowed voters to turn up at any early voting site in the county that was convenient for them, Election Day brings in more stringent rules about where voters are allowed to cast their ballot. North Carolina voters are only allowed to cast ballots at their assigned precincts on Election Day. To find your polling location, visit the Cumberland County Board of Elections’ webpage on precincts and polling sites.

On Tuesday afternoon, a school bell rang every few minutes at the College Lakes Recreation Center, punctuating the shuffling of feet and the encouragement of political campaigners outside the voting location. The ringing bell marked the celebration of a first-time voter casting their ballot at the polling place. 

One such first-time voter, Shania Lee, 22, told CityView that she is “thrilled” to be voting in the 2024 election. Should there have been a long line, Lee said, she would have been willing to wait until she was able to vote. “My voice and opinion matters,” Lee said. 

Grayson Cain, 20, another first-time voter, emphasized that health care is one of the most important issues on the ballot in her opinion. “I just want access to affordable health care. I want to make sure I can still get my birth control.” she said. “I just want to vote for a woman who knows what’s best for me.”

While turnout for this year’s early voting period shows North Carolina Republicans slightly outpaced Democrats, we won’t know the final numbers for ballots cast on Election Day until later. Still, at one polling place in Cumberland County today, some residents found common ground while casting their votes and looking to inform voters. 

An example: Garrack Benson, a member of the Cumberland County Men’s Democratic Club, and Richard Upchurch, a volunteer with Republican county commissioner candidate Henry Tyson’s campaign, stood by side in the parking lot of Stoney Point Recreation Center on Tuesday afternoon. They had been chatting throughout the morning as they passed out materials to voters making their way to the ballet box. 

Benson said he’s been participating in recruiting voter engagement since early voting on Oct. 17

“I’ve been at Stony Point specifically to see a lot of the voting activities and it’s been pretty interesting,” he said. “No major issues. I mean, you know, you find that people have something in common and that is having a concern for the community and their families and they’re coming out to execute their civic duty, and I think that’s important. And the other part, you have some folks that may not necessarily be as nice, but that is few and far between.” 

“I concur with everything he said,” Upchurch chimed in. He has also been campaigning at the polls since early voting began. 

Upchurch had some observations about voters, too. Most voters have been polite, except for a few “oddballs,” he said. Based on Upchurch’s experience, voters have generally fit into three camps when approached by campaigners like himself: not interested, somewhat interested, and extremely interested. Those who are extremely interested are the smallest group, he said. 

“And then there’s a small group, 10 or 15%, some contentious, some not, they’re just genuinely curious about certain things about the candidate or party,” Upchurch said. “So, it’s a mixed bag. But yeah, that’s just an observation.”

As of noon Tuesday, here’s how voter turnout in Cumberland County stands:

• 104,180 – Ballots banked by Cumberland County voters before Election Day. This includes 98,684 people who did in-person early voting, and 5,496 who voted via absentee ballot. (Source: N.C. State Board of Elections)
• 16,018 – Ballots cast between 6:30 a.m. and noon on Election Day in Cumberland County (Source: Elections Director Angie Amaro)
• 120,198 – Total votes cast by noon Tuesday (104,180 during early and absentee voting plus 16,018)
• 228,711 – Total number of registered voters in Cumberland County as of Election Day. (State Board of Elections)
• 52% – Turnout through noon Tuesday (120,198 divided by 228,711 times 100)

On a statewide level, North Carolinians cast a record number of votes during the early voting period. North Carolina voting data from before Election Day:

57% – Voter turnout in North Carolina before Election Day (4.48 million divided by 7.84 million times 100)

4.48 million – Ballots cast before Election Day. This includes 4.2 million via in-person early voting and 266,583 absentee ballots. (N.C. State Board of Elections)

7.84 million – Total number of registered voters in North Carolina as of Election Day. (State Board of Elections)

Cliffdale Recreation Center, one of the busiest precincts in Cumberland County, had no shortage of voters streaming in to vote. The only issue: most of them were at the wrong polling place.

CityView spoke with five voters who were at the wrong polling location. One needed to vote at one of the City of Fayetteville Fire Station locations. Another voter needed to cast her ballot at a church in Hope Mills.

North Carolina voters can cast a ballot at any early voting site during the early voting period. However, the last day of early voting was on Saturday. On Election Day, voters are assigned a specific precinct, which is the only place they can cast their ballot. Voters can find their polling place on the North Carolina Board of Elections website.

Tom Hatch, one of the candidates for Cumberland County Board of Education District 3, has been posted outside the recreation center since 6 a.m. He told CityView he was shocked to see so many people unaware that they were assigned a voting location on Election Day.

“Remember to still get your vote in!” Hatch called after voters were turned away from Cliffdale Recreation Center.

Hatch also showed people how to scan a QR code at the entrance of the recreation center to check whether it was their correct voting location. He helped direct people to their correct polling place when they were uncertain of where it was. 

The issue of voters not knowing where they could vote got so bad at Cliffdale Recreation Center that a poll worker came out to ask Hatch and other campaigners to help deliver information not only on precincts but also on casting absentee ballots and voter registration.

Absentee ballots cast on Election Day must be handed in at the Cumberland County Board of Elections office on Fountainhead Lane. North Carolina does not have same-day voter registration on Election Day.

Election Day got underway today in Cumberland County with a key group of people missing from its 77 voting precincts: Republican election observers.

Cumberland County Republican Party Chair Nina Morton said she tried to send her list of observers by email to county Board of Elections Director Angie Amaro about five minutes before the deadline, which was noon Monday. But something went wrong with her laptop or internet connection, Morton said, and the list didn’t get sent until 12:02 p.m.

State law says that is too late.

“To me, it was devastating. I felt horrible,” Morton told CityView this morning.

If you stay up late expecting to hear who won the presidential race on election night, you might be disappointed. The race is expected to be tight, both in North Carolina and nationally. Some ballots are processed later than others. Close contests can lead to recounts.  

“If it’s two days later, that’s not a sign of negligence, nor is it a sign of somebody doing the wrong thing,” said Chris Cooper, director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University. It’s possible voters won’t know the entire picture until the state’s 100 local election boards hold their canvass meetings—the official certification of votes—on November 15. 

The North Carolina Board of Elections will certify results for state and federal races on November 26. “The smaller the margin [of victory], the longer it’s going to take,” Cooper said.

While the winners of Cumberland County’s two seats in the state Senate and four seats in the state House elections on Tuesday are largely preordained by their gerrymandered districts, the candidates have still been raising money and campaigning.

Their fundraising and spending can give hints as to how well they will perform in the election — though spending more money doesn’t guarantee success.

Here’s a look at the campaign finance data available for the candidates seeking state House Districts 42, 43, 44 and 45 in Cumberland County, state Senate District 19 in Cumberland County, and state Senate District 21 that serves Moore and Cumberland counties.

With just days until Nov. 5, everyone is making their last push to turn out the vote this election, including Fayetteville’s local chapters of the National Pan-Hellenic Council — the nine Black Greek-letter organizations colloquially called the “Divine Nine.”

While unable to endorse a candidate, recent national media attention on the over 2 million-strong Divine Nine, according to NBC News, has focused on the organizations’ voter engagement efforts for Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, an Alpha Kappa Alpha sister.

But the Fayetteville chapters of the Divine Nine aren’t taking sides in this election, just like they haven’t in any other.

As early voting got underway in October, incidents at Cumberland County early voting sites stirred up voters, the county Republican Party, and county Board of Elections members — raising questions about which kind of activities are allowed outside the polls.

Meanwhile, voting is entering its final days before Nov. 5 Election Day, with data showing participation in early voting and absentee ballot voting has trended down compared to this point in the 2020 election.

As of Wednesday morning, according to the North Carolina Board of Elections, about 3.37 million people had voted statewide. That is 39.8% of nearly 7.8 million registered voters. By this point in the 2020 election, 3.66 million had voted. In Cumberland County, 76,599 have voted as of Wednesday morning, vs. 96,100 in 2020.

Over the past several weeks, the Cumberland County elections staff and the five members of the Cumberland County Board of Elections have taken in nearly 3,300 absentee ballots.

It’s a laborious task that runs hours and hours as each ballot is processed by hand by the three Democrats and two Republicans appointed to oversee the elections.

Tuesday’s Board of Elections meeting ran nearly three hours and 40 minutes before the board decided to take a break until 9 a.m. Wednesday. The staff and board members had handled about 900 ballots.

Why couldn’t the board finish on Tuesday?

Because somewhere along the way that morning, the count of how many ballots the elections office received and the board handled was one more than the ballot total listed on the ballot tabulation machine.

Pavan Patel has raised twice as much as his competitors for the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners race, according to self-reported campaign finance records for the first half of 2024. Patel has never held a political office before — but he’s raised more than $83,000 from Jan. 1 to June 30 this year. 

The second-highest fundraising candidate, Kirk deViere, with over $39,000, represented the 19th district in the North Carolina State Senate from 2019 to 2023. He’s also a former Fayetteville City Council member.

There are three seats up for grabs in the county commissioners’ race. Six candidates, three from each party, are running to be on the board. The top three vote-getters will be elected. The six candidates have raised a combined total of $182,681.82 from Jan. 1 to June 30.