In the race for the Orange County Board of Commissioners, Jean Hamilton beat out two incumbents to successfully claim her seat – but it remains a painstakingly close race to fill the last open seat on the board.

Incumbent candidate, and chair of the board, Penny Rich, is in a deadlock with fellow incumbent Mark Dorosin. Both Rich and Dorosin finished out Tuesday’s Election Day with 31 percent of the vote with a meager nine votes separating the two.

With the difference in votes being so marginal, no official calls can be made until provisional and absentee ballots finish trickling in.

Rich spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck the day after the election. She said these too-close-to-call races may be indicative of how elections are going to be in Orange County from here on out.

“It was surprisingly close between Mark and I,” Rich said. “I didn’t expect that. I did think it was going to be a tight race overall.”

Rich said there’s about 262 provisional ballots still pending, and only maybe half of them will be eligible to count due to improper registration or filing under the incorrect precinct.

Rich said there’s also 326 absentee ballots that are still pending, but even those face the risk of not being counted in time.

“They had to be postmarked on Tuesday at midnight and they have to be received in the office by Friday and that’s a crapshoot – you just never know how many of those you’re going to get back,” Rich said.

While the race, overall, may have been neck and neck, one precinct Rich dominated was UNC’s campus.

She attributes this support from the student population to spending an ample amount of time on campus as a mentor, having a campaign manager who is a grad student at UNC and being committed to listening to young people.

“You know, it’s just that communication,” Rich said. “I mean I think that I’m really interested in the next generation and the future and what they’re thinking about. Sometimes people my age don’t think about what they’re thinking about – and I really care – so it’s important to me to always be listening to what they’re saying.”

To keep following this Board of County Commissioners race, and to find all the results of the other local elections in our community, visit our local elections page.

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