Republican Cumberland County Board of Commissioners candidate Peter Pappas trailed fellow Republican Henry Tyson by 179 votes following a ballot recount this week for their election.
Pappas previously was 177 votes behind Tyson. Due to the narrow margin (they were less than 1% apart among the 75,589 total votes cast for them), state law allowed Pappas to have a recount.
Pappas, who observed part of the recount Friday, told CityView he was “relieved” for the campaign season to come to a close. But his loss doesn’t mean he’s rolling back his involvement in local civic and political groups, he said.
The Republican Candidates Resource Center, which opened earlier this summer, is housed at Pappas’ real estate business on Owen Drive. He also serves on the county’s Civic Center Commission and the Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations Commission.
“I have plenty of work to do,” Pappas told CityView on Friday afternoon. “I’m very blessed where I’m at. I’m very happy.”
Pappas unsuccessfully ran for Fayetteville City Council in 2022.
“And being my first time out, that one did put me back a little bit,” he said. “But this time, I put together a campaign that I was proud of. I reached the people that I wanted to reach. A lot of people contributed to me that I really was very humbled [by].”
With the recount, the Cumberland County Board of Elections has re-certified its results, and Tyson will take office Dec. 2 along with Democrat Kirk deViere and Republican Pavan Patel. DeViere, Patel and Tyson were the top vote-getters in the six-candidate race for the three seats that serve District 2 on the board.
Starting Wednesday morning, precinct officials and staff ran nearly 142,000 ballots through county voting machines to recount both the Cumberland County commissioners election for Pappas and the statewide race for Seat 6 on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
In the N.C. Supreme Court race, Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin was just 625 votes statewide behind incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs when results were certified this week, so he, too, requested a recount.
Cumberland County’s portion of the 100-county recount gave Griffin three more votes than he had before, and gave Riggs two more votes than she had before, said Irene Grimes, the chairperson of the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
Other counties are still recounting their ballots, and this will continue into the weekend.
Separately, Griffin has challenged whether 60,000 voters across the state were legally eligible to vote. Hearings are being held statewide to consider his assertion.
The Cumberland County Board of Elections is meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday to consider his challenges to Cumberland County voters.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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