The Craven County Board of Elections will meet on Oct. 14, 2025, to canvass New Bern’s municipal election.
Registered voters living within the city voted for mayor and city council candidates during the Early Voting period and on Election Day, which was Oct. 7 in New Bern, NC.
Voters also voted on three separate bond measures, as reported here.
Candidates must win with a majority of the vote which is 50 percent of the vote plus one to avoid a runoff.
According to the Election Results Dashboard on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, unofficial results show there could be a couple of runoffs, depending on the outcome of the canvass by the Craven County Board of Elections and whether candidates qualify.
In the race for New Bern’s mayor, incumbent Jeffrey Odham received 49.19 percent with Holly Raby having the second most votes at 41.53 percent.
James “Trey” Ferguson received over 60 percent of the vote for Ward 1 Alderman with Alana Huber having the second most votes at 34.53 percent.
Sharon Bryant received 50.52 percent of the vote for Ward 2 Alderman with Debby Seymore having the second most votes at 49.22 percent.
Incumbent Bobby Aster ran uncontested for Ward 3 Alderman receiving over 97 percent of the vote.
In the race for Ward 4 Alderman, Lainy White received 40.22 percent of the vote with incumbent Johnnie Ray Kinsey having the second most votes at 34.28 percent.
Incumbent Barbara Best received over 65 percent of the votes for Ward 5 Alderman with Manny Ruiz having the second most votes at 34.52 percent.
Dana Edwards Outlaw received over 64 percent of the votes for Ward 6 Alderman with Nat McKeller Crosby having the second most votes at 34.76 percent.
Susan Williams, Elections Director with Craven County Board of Elections, told NewBernNow.com on Oct. 9 that “Canvass or finalizing this election will occur October 14th, once the election is finalized, Candidates that are eligible may request a runoff up until October 16th. If we have a runoff election, the Early Voting will begin as soon as possible after the runoff is called.”
The Elections Director said Early Voting for the other Counties in North Carolina begins Oct. 16 and ends Nov 1. She said, “Absentee ballots will be available as well. We will fall into the same schedule as soon as ballots are prepared for the runoff.”
“Results take a while to upload,” she said.
Susan Williams said, “I have been a director since 2016, results use to show up right at 7:30 because we were allowed to have then Board close and tabulated the early voting machines and absentee machines earlier in the day. This meant that the Director had the time to upload to our computer (that is not connected to the internet) to download them and print required reports for the Board, and they must verify that the vote totals I have loaded match the results tape printed at the machine. Then we save the results to a new flash drive and upload to a connected computer and send results through the state program to show up on the website and to report to the media. Then we look to verify that the results showing to the public match what we started with.”
“New laws changed this process; the Board may not close the machines until 7:30 p.m. This takes longer, but as soon as I can get the first upload, I submit it. And as they come in, we get them uploaded as fast as possible while not skipping any of our verification steps. We do understand the desire for quick results, and we work hard to get those out. But in a bigger election we need our Citizens to understand that any absentee by mail ballots that come in between 5 p.m. Monday night before election day and 7:30 p.m. election night must now be verified by the board, opened and inserted into the tabulator. Then we must shut down the machine and report those results before we can end the election day meeting. In a Presidential election this process may take all night and into the morning hours,” she said.
On Oct. 9, the Elections Director said, “Provisional votes have not been counted yet. Old laws had those counted the day before canvass, now they must be counted and reported by the 3rd business day after the election. We will have those results on Friday (Oct. 10) by 5 p.m.,” she said.
By Wendy Card, editor. Send an email with questions or comments.