District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling – who finished 425 votes down in the mayor’s race – has not conceded.
According to the unofficial results, Mayor Nancy Vaughan won reelection on Tuesday, July 26 by a slim margin.
Vaughan unofficially had 13,932 votes for 43.05 percent while Outling finished the night with 13,507 votes for 41.74 percent. However, there are still absentee and mail-in votes from military personnel that have not been counted, and the vote totals are still unofficial.
A total of 4,921 write-in votes were cast in the mayor’s race, presumably the majority of those were for Chris Meadows who announced on June 13 he was running a write-in campaign for mayor and had the support of the Guilford County Republican Party.
Outling in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon, July 27, stated, “Thank you for all your support! I wanted to update you on where we are in this election process …
“There is an unknown amount of absentee votes and mail in votes from service numbers (I am working to understand how many). I believe in counting every vote and we are waiting for those votes to be counted. If it pulls the margin within 1% (and we are now at 1.3%) then there could be a recount before results can be certified.
“Thank you for hanging with us the votes are counted!
“(Maybe it’s the lawyer on me but I have to wait until the final verdict to call the case closed.)”
Most of the news outlets in the area have declared Vaughan the winner based on the unofficial vote totals.
Good job on the write in candidate(s) – I said all along this was a vote for Nancy and the status quo – idiots!!
In the election day voting, Outling won with 8,745 votes to 7,952 for Vaughan.
But Vaughan won the election because in early voting she had 5,717 votes to 4,582 for Outling
Most folks did not know about Chris Meadows in the early voting so it is doubtful that the write in vote was a vote for Vaughn. Outling will be no better than Vaughn as mayor.
It sounds to me like Outling needs to go back to school for writing classes. His lack of attention to detail in his writing is alarming and would give me pause in trusting him to represent me as an attorney, and particularly as the leader of my city.
Apparently a few thousand voters passed on a good choice and voted for what seemed to be a better choice, leaving us stuck with the worst choice.
I have seen the result of the election & bond issues. The Democrats have solidified their control of the city, and it’s revenues. Much to be used to further entrench themselves in power. The Democrat party has excelled in controlling the vote thru a myriad of methods. Such as the low voter turnout – most of the apathetic and uninformed voters did not know either the candidates, their parties, politics, or record; and just didn’t bother.
This is how the larger cities and Blue States have consolidated their power. ALL enabled by the “minority” of voters. Voters who want a free lunch, or to gain political advantage over others.
The mid terms and the next Presidential election will probably determine the Country’s fate, what there is left of it.
Survival gear is in order.
Outling got the Anti-Vaughn vote but missed out on the Simpkins PAC endorsement and the write in vote which was a no vote for Vaughn or Outling. Outling would have just been another Vaughn on the council so the city would not have been any better off. Too bad a city as large as GSO can not muster up a candidate that will represent all constituents instead of pandering to those that cry ME ME ME all the time.
The Chris Meadows write-in campaign undoubtedly cost him the election. He rubber-stamped the tax increase along with the rest of the council, and that used up any goodwill he may have had left from the few conservatives in town. It was clear that a Mayor Outling would just be more the same failures from the last five years.
Well, at least the Rhino will have Nancy Vaughan around to write up for four more years. And Chris Meadows will probably get a Christmas card from her for the rest of his life. So, what if 57% of voters who cast a ballot against the incumbent mayor saw their votes become meaningless. It all worked out, right?
Greensboro is the armpit of North Carolina, stinky and getting worse day by day.