Sarika Bansal, Rachel Jordan locked in tight battle for Cary Town Council seat in run-off election
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A heated run-off election that took place Tuesday in Cary remains too close to call. The winner will represent District D on the Cary Town Council.
The race pitted Sarika Bansal against Rachel Jordan.
District D has voters in Wake County and Chatham County, so it complicates the viewing of results on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.
With 100% of precincts reporting in Wake County, Bansal has 333 more votes than Jordan. But in Chatham County, Jordan has 266 more votes than Bansal.
So in total, the race appears to be separated by fewer than 70 votes
Both campaigns told ABC11 on Tuesday night that they can't call the race. They both plan to wait and see the final count of absentee ballots.
Both camps said they believe there are hundreds of absentee ballots that have not yet been counted.
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Bansal won the election in October but failed to get 50 percent of the votes cast, which allowed for Jordan to ask for run-off election without any other candidates on the ballot.
Bansal and Jordan both hope to get an increased turnout--as turnout is often the deciding factor, especially during off-year elections.
"Unfortunately we see low voter turnout in municipal elections in general," said Karen Brinson Bell. "But it's not particularly low this year compared to previous years. It's just what we see. It is interesting though that typically the municipal voter is more civically engaged. So they are more familiar with what's going on in local government than what we see with all the millions of dollars spent around state and federal elections when we have presidential years, for example."
If both women get their core supporters out a second time, Bansal has a much easier path than Jordan. But one question is how supporters of incumbent Ryan Eades will vote.
SEE ALSO: Other municipal elections happening in central North Carolina
Eades was appointed to the seat after Ya Liu was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, but came in third in October to Bansal and Jordan.
Polls are set to close in North Carolina at 7:30 p.m., marking an end to the majority of municipal elections across the state.
Remember, while polls close at 7:30 p.m., state law allows anyone in line at that time to still be able to cast their vote.
