bvell iquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632
HILLSBOROUGH -- Some voters in Orange and Chatham counties are being called back to the polls Tuesday to vote in two runoff elections.
In Orange County, voters who live in the Orange County Schools district will have the opportunity to vote for either incumbent Anne Medenblik or newcomer Laura Nicholson for the final seat on the Orange County Board of Education.
Also, Democrats and some unaffiliated voters in both Orange and Chatham counties can vote in the runoff election between Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham for the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. Unaffiliated voters who voted on the Democratic ballot in the May 4 primary will be eligible to vote in the runoff race, but those who voted on the Republican ballot will not.
The winner will face Republican Sen. Richard Burr in the November election.
In the May election, Medenblik, who has been serving as the chairwoman of the Orange County Schools Board of Education, came in fourth with 2,574 votes followed by Nicholson with 2,507 votes. Nicholson opted for a runoff election.
Debbie Piscitelli led the voting in the school board race with 3,547 votes, followed by Donna Dean Coffey with 3,219 votes and Brenda Stephens with 2,662 votes.
Since the May election, Donna Brinkley, the finance officer for the Orange County Schools, conducted a financial audit of the parent teacher organization at Central Elementary. The audit revealed a number of deficiencies in the record keeping of the PTSA.
Nicholson was president of the PTSA and responsible for the record keeping. Brinkley could not find, among other things, a number of important receipts. She also could not find evidence that money from a spaghetti fund raiser had been deposited in the bank.
In a letter to the PTSA board, Nicholson said the accusations of mishandling PTSA monies were completely false. She wrote that she has spent hundreds of hours working on improving Central Elementary School and on PTSA business, but she admitted to making some mistakes, saying paperwork had not been her top priority.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation into the PTSA records.
"[Investigator] Doug Koehler has that case, and it is still an open case," said Capt. Archie Daniel on Friday. "He will have some comment on that as soon as he comes to a conclusion."
Nicholson could not be reached for comment Friday or the previous week.
Medenblik has been campaigning on her own record of four years on the school board and the accomplishments of the school system, including success in narrowing the achievement gap and graduation rates that are among the highest in the state.
Medenblik said she is "absolutely not" conducting a negative campaign against Nicholson, saying the claims against Nicholson are just allegations.
"I still believe folks are innocent until they're proven guilty," she said.
The polls will be open at all 44 polling sites in Orange County on Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
As of Friday morning, 734 people had voted early. The early voting period began on June 3 at the Hillsborough Board of Elections.
Tracy Reams, director of the Elections Board, is hoping that at least 5 percent of the registered voters will vote in the runoff election. Fifteen percent voted in the May primary; 65 percent voted in the 2008 presidential election.
