requested a runoff<\/a> after the unofficial results on October 7th showed Odham short by 47 votes of the threshold to win, with Odham at 49.3% and Raby at 41.6%. <\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve run for office four times, and I\u2019ve had runoffs. This will be the third one now, but each time before, I was actually in second place, requested the runoff, and ended up winning,\u201d Odham said. \u201cI think the biggest difference this time is the margin of victory. We won the election Tuesday night by 480 votes.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Craven County Board of Elections shows that Odham had 479 votes over Raby. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were very close, and so we felt like we ran a good first initial campaign, and so we still had gas in the tank. By looking at the numbers, we felt like we had an even greater chance this time around,\u201d Raby said. <\/p>\n
Wednesday night, both candidates debated hot topics, such as electric rates, and even the handling of 2024\u2019s year-long vacant Alderman Ward 6 seat, which Dana Outlaw won on October 7th.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [residents of Ward 6] weren\u2019t given the process of who they desire to have versus who the mayor desires,\u201d Raby said. \u201cAs far as leadership goes, we could have done something much sooner. It could have happened two months out when that seat became vacant or even six weeks out. I believe that the process wasn\u2019t there, and the experience didn\u2019t make it happen.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was the process that was missed? Because I called for a special meeting as soon as we knew it was vacant. We had an attorney who sat there and gave us guidance and direction, and we followed it. Ultimately, the gentleman that I had supported for over a year was overwhelmingly elected by the people in Ward 6,\u201d Odham said. <\/p>\n
Voters are also deciding the Ward 4 Alderman seat between incumbent Johnnie Kinsey and Lainey White after a runoff for that race was also requested. <\/p>\n
To avoid a runoff, a candidate must exceed 50% of the vote. <\/p>\n
With Odham and Raby being the only two names on the mayor\u2019s ballot, they\u2019re calling on everyone to come to the polls to decide New Bern\u2019s next mayor. <\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s race and the Ward 4 Alderman race will be decided on November 4th.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 WITN. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) – In September, 470 voters cast early ballots, but 489 turned out Thursday for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,108,7507,7509,5514,7510,5512,117,107,7508,2876,5462,105,106],"class_list":["post-9554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bern","tag-bern","tag-craven-county","tag-craven-county-board-of-election","tag-early-voting","tag-holly-raby","tag-jeffrey-odham","tag-mayor","tag-nc","tag-new-bern","tag-runoff","tag-vote","tag-voting","tag-witn","tag-witn-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}