Fansler Won't Appeal Dismissal Of Election Protest

Forsyth County School Board candidate Katherine Fansler says she's won't appeal a decision by the local elections board to dismiss her election protest. 

Fansler protested the election, saying that she had witnessed irregularities in how ballots were handled.

The Forsyth Board of Elections voted unanimously Monday to dismiss Fansler's protest, saying she had not shown probable cause for her complaint.

She could have appealed to the State Board. But she tells WFDD that she won't do so. Fansler says the county board has publicly acknowledged mistakes were made in tabulating the results, and is taking steps to correct them. So she sees no reason to appeal.

"The accountability is all I wanted," she says.

Board Chairman Ken Raymond says all the ballots except one were accounted for in the canvassing and recount process. Raymond says there were a few technical problems election night, but that's to be expected when more than 100,000 votes are cast.

“When you're dealing with a process like that, human error is inevitable," he says. "That's why the canvass period is part of the process. The canvass period is there to address human error.”

Had an appeal been filed, it would have held up the election results for the race. Fansler's decision clears the way for the three winners of the race to be sworn in next week.

Theo Helm, a spokesman for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, says school officials  are awaiting word that the election results have been certified.

“We are anticipating having that certification before our meeting Tuesday, Dec. 9, which is when we had planned to have the swearing-in of all our newly elected board members.”

Fansler came in fourth in the race for three seats on the board. The at-large winners were Elizabeth Motsinger, Robert Barr and Mark Johnson.