Runoffs and Recounts and Other Revelry

The race for state labor commissioner is becoming quite laborious.

In the Democratic primary for the office, Winston-Salem’s Mary Fant Donnan was the top vote-getter by a slim margin, but she fell well short of the necessary 40 percent to win outright. That means a runoff election is in order.

But it’s uncertain who else will get to be in the runoff. Currently the second-place candidate is John Brooks, but the third and fourth-place candidates are just a few thousand votes behind, and they both have requested recounts. But the state law on recounts is written in such a way that it is unclear whether the third and fourth place finishers are legally entitled to such a recount. The State Board of Elections will have to sort through the issue this week. Full story is here.

Meanwhile, another very close Democratic primary ended much more simply. In the 5th Congressional District, Diane Hamby decided not to request a recount against Roy Carter, the Journal’s Bertrand Gutierrez reports. That clears the way for Carter to take on incumbent Republican Virginia Foxx in the fall.