Medenblik wins runoff
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH — There was something unusual about election night on Tuesday: The votes were in and counted before it got dark.
The verdict rendered by Orange County voters in the runoffs for the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate race and the Orange County Board of Education came just after 8 p.m.
One reason was the minimal number of races on the ballot, but turnout was also a factor. A scant 7.76 percent of Orange County residents voted.
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall won the election in Orange County and the rest of the state. Statewide, Marshall received 94,989 votes, or 59.95 percent of the vote, and former state senator Cal Cunningham received 63,456 votes, or 40.05 percent.
In Orange County, home to Carrboro-based political consultant Thomas Mills, who is helping steer Marshall’s campaign, her win was slightly larger. She received 4,581 votes, or 67.29 percent, to Cunningham’s 2,227, or 32.71 percent.
Democrats quickly closed ranks for the general election race, with Cunningham’s endorsement of Marshall Tuesday night and a unity rally in Raleigh on Wednesday afternoon.
Marshall faces one-term incumbent Sen. Richard Burr in the fall.
In the night’s only other contest in Orange County, school board chair Anne Medenblik easily survived a runoff challenge from Laura Nicholson, who finished fifth in the May election. Medenblik received 1,702 votes, or 73.97 percent, to Nicholson’s 577 votes, or 25.08 percent. There were 22 write-in votes. This election settles the last of four seats on the Orange County school board.