Orange County voters backed the reforms proposed by former Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt in the race for Clerk of Court.

Kelinschmidt defeated incumbent James Stanford, who had served as clerk for nearly two decades.

Kleinschmidt ran a campaign focused on making the clerk’s office a more welcoming environment, as he described it, saying that he would exercise more discretion in the position. Supporters of Kleinschmidt had pointed to the amount of paperwork being required for adoptions in Orange County as an area that could disproportionately impact same-sex couples.

In what was the closest race at the local level during Tuesday’s primary election, Kleinschmidt knocked off Stanford by nearly 1,700 votes, garnering more than 54 percent of the vote.

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