COLUMBUS – Election results were made official last Tuesday morning, Nov. 22 after the canvassing was delayed from the previous Friday statewide.

The Polk County Board of Elections performed the final canvassing of votes on Tuesday, Nov. 22 following the Nov. 8 election to make them official.

Polk County on the whole voted mostly for Republican candidates, except for the Tryon precinct, in all races from U.S. President to the county board of commissioners.

As of press time Monday, a governor had still not been declared.

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has demanded a recount after final results indicated challenger Roy Cooper (D) won the election. Cooper received 2,300,334 votes compared to McCrory’s 2,292,618 with 48.99 percent of the votes to 48.83 percent of the votes respectively, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. The difference was 7,716 as of last Wednesday after the final canvassing. The state allows a recount for a difference of up to 10,000 votes. Polk County voted for McCrory decidedly, with all precincts except for Tryon choosing the incumbent governor. In total, McCrory won in Polk County with 6,225 votes to Cooper’s 4,302 and Lon Cecil (Lib) receiving 251 votes.

Another state race was for the U.S. House of Representatives District 10, which includes Polk County, with challenger Andy Millard (D) of Polk County in the race against incumbent Congressman Patrick McHenry (R). McHenry retained his seat by a final count of 220,606 votes to Millard’s 128,644 votes, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections.

In Polk County Millard lost by 1,424 votes, losing in six precincts and winning in the Tryon Township.

For U.S. President, Donald Trump (R) won nationwide, and in Polk County by over 3,000 votes to Hillary Clinton (D). Trump received 6,768 Polk County votes to Clinton’s 3,735, Gary Johnson’s 272 and Jill Stein’s 52 votes.

Trump also took North Carolina with a total of 2,356,239 votes compared to Clinton’s 2,180,620, Johnson’s 129,447, 52,068 write-ins and Stein’s 7,061, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. 

For the Polk County Board of Commissioners, Polk County voted for all three Republicans.

Jake Johnson (R) was high vote-getter with a total of 6,370 votes, followed by Myron Yoder (R) with 5,913 votes and Tommy Melton (R) with 5,569 votes, according to the final count.

The Republicans beat the Democrats running by more than 1,700 votes with Penny Padgett (D) receiving 3,868 votes, Rhonda Lewis (D) receiving 3,726 votes and Russell Mierop (D) receiving 3,261 votes.

Johnson was high vote-getter in five of Polk’s seven precincts, winning in Columbus 7, Columbus 8, Coopers Gap, White Oak and Saluda. Yoder was high vote-getter in Green Creek with Johnson second and Melton third. Padgett was high vote-getter in Tryon with Johnson second and Lewis third.

Johnson and Yoder won four-year seats as commissioners and Melton won a two-year seat. A referendum in Polk County to change the board of commissioner structure to all staggered four-year terms failed by a vote of 5,688 against the referendum to 3,960 for the referendum.

New commissioners will be sworn into office during the county’s first December meeting, scheduled for Monday, Dec. 5.

The only race for Polk County School Board was in the White Oak Township, where incumbent Cindy Allen retained her seat with a total of 4,958 votes over Kevin Seay’s 2,885 votes, according to the Polk County Board of
Elections.