City Council member Bryan Freeborn said Wednesday that a smaller margin between his and Bill Russell’s election numbers was the main factor in his decision to ask for a recount of the Asheville City Council election tally.
Preliminary numbers from the Nov. 6 election showed Republican Russell beating Democrat Freeborn by 84 votes. Official numbers released by the Buncombe County Board of Elections on Tuesday reduced that number to 74. Freeborn issued a written request shortly after the new numbers were released.
“The deciding factor was that the margin narrowed,” Freeborn told Xpress. “If that number had grown, I wouldn’t have asked for a recount.”
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
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now why would Bryan want to break his perfect record of losing every city council election he ever ran in?
You’re right Ralph. As our 2000 election showed, our system is perfect and anyone who requests a recount is a loser!
There were hardly any hanging chads in the city council election.
Gee, I thought Freeborn won a seat two years ago. If he lost every election he ran in, who appointed him?
Also, Freeborn has the right to request a recount. It may not change anything, but nonetheless this is his (or anyone else’s in a similar close race) prerogative.
He did not win any elections, he was appointed to fill a vacancy.
Any close election deserves a recount. Opti-scan ballots are by no means fool proof.
“He did not win any elections, he was appointed to fill a vacancy.”
You are right and I stand corrected. Thank you. Still, as 9-volt states, such a close election does deserve a recount. No need for hanging chads to justify it.
I support the recount. I look forward to being able to say with great confidence that Freeborn is gone.
He got 4th place both times around. Since Mayor Bellamy had to give up her seat, appointing him did make sense 2 years ago.
But recounts don’t hurt. Rushing our democracy does .
Too bad he voted against The E. He would have won the election had he not done so. After all the testimony given at that final CC meeting, it was so obvious that the bldg needed to be built, and just as obvious by his ‘Aye’ vote against that he was playing politics, that he sealed his own fate. Too bad too, cuz, he could have done some good around here vis-a-vie transportation. Lesson to be learned Cape and Jones.
Bryan
Please don’t waste anymore of our time.
You lost because you are a career politician at the age of 31. You moved into town a few years ago and threw your hat in the ring for public office.
Part of growing up is learning how to lose gracefully and be a good sport. Take a few years, actually become part of our community, then maybe you will have the big boy pants to be in public office and help guide our community.
Personally, I am glad the transplant Vermont socialist Freeborn is asking for a recount. I’ll have a second excuse to celebrate with friends over drinks. Yee haw! Oh just how will we cope here in Asheville without Northeastern leftwing guidance to tell us how to do things right? Well I guess we’ll just keep on keeping on just as we have for a long long time. Bryan, go back to Vermont. They need you there. We are doing just fine without you.
Well Bryan and his socialism got voted out. Now I will have a second opportunity to celebrate his defeat! :)
Finally, it’s over. Good.
Thank God. We have enough going on in our lives in Asheville without a young pup from the Northeast who thinks he knows what’s best for us all. Remember his “Critical Mass” bike rides? Geez. I want elders on the Council who have a sense of proportion.
Maybe Bryan is a little too young, and little too new to Asheville to represent us all. He had some good ideas, and some bad ideas – but I believe he had a good vision for the city as a whole.
Understanding the dynamics of our local politics and tempering his visions to reflect a better “sense of proportion” may make him a good civic leader in the future.
Freeborn is not from the North East. He grew up 2 hours away in South Carolina. We need more people like Bryan in office who have piss and vinegar and will not roll over for special interests and outside development interests.
The problem with people full of piss and vinegar is that if you rub them the wrong way, it all boils out of them. It’s better to have a moderate, even keeled kind of guy working for the true disenfranchised … no, cookie Freeborn is just a smiley looking for a ride and doesn’t have the interests of the people of Asheville at heart. … just another outside Democrat who lost and doesn’t like it and his special interest couldn’t carry him in.
OK,so Bryan grew up in SC? He went to college in Vermont, if you check his bio. And Vermont is full of socialist fervor, as is much of the NE. So Bryan’s views were “shaped” in Vermont. If he is full of “piss and vinegar”, it is only because he is so YOUNG. Too young to be on Council. He has no sense of scale because he has not enough life experience. Remember when he asked the APD to escort himself and a bunch of other spoiled brats on a “critical mass” bike ride over the I-240 bridge? Jamming traffic so these self-centered brats could make a point? That is really stupid. Perhaps many people voted against him for this reason alone. The guy who posted that Bryan should grow up before he tries to “put on his big boy pants” said it very well.
well, it does NOT appear to be over… according to the AC-T this morning, Bryan is asking for a HAND recount. (you got three, Bryan, go away).
As I said over at ScruHoo:
“Imagine if the real estate Republican candidate was asking for a recount when the margin is fewer than 70 votes, when the canvass differed from the original count, when the rescan differed from both of the other counts, when the law provides for a 3% sample to verify the rescan and another safeguard after that if the numbers remain uncertain.
…And remember that these many of these commenters are the people who wanted to “Let Asheville Vote”.
http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=4442
“…And remember that these many of these commenters are the people who wanted to ‘Let Asheville Vote’.”
1. I would dispute the claim that these commenters are all the same people. Juicy but unsubstantiated rhetoric.
2. The Let Asheville Vote coalition was dedicated to getting the citizens of Asheville to decide the partisan elections issue rather than four council members. We succeeded.
This is not the same as someone criticizing a request for a recount in a general election.
Whether or not there is any recount, and whatever the outcome, the citizens of Asheville have been able to vote in either case.
The ability to vote is prior to any possible recount. It was the ability to vote on the matter on partisan elections alone that the Let Asheville Vote coalition sought to effect.
I support a candidates right to request a recount and I look forward to knowing for damn certain that Freeborn has been returned to the private sector.
Ah, Tim hit the reason for the hand recount. Poor Bryan will have to return to the “private” sector. That is death for a socialist. Government “service” is the elite position for a socialist. Having to work for a living inside the capitalist system, like the rest of us, must really stick in Bryan’s craw. I was in favor of the first recount. But this second hand cunt just goes to show Bryan is a sore loser. Hey Bryan, this time the drinks are on you! See you at Asheville Pizza and Brewing, OK?
Look, I agree with most folks here however with 1% I too would ask for the first re-count.
Now, Freeborn has gone to far, its sad to see him go to this level with such high ground were he stood for the last few years.
Their is a time when its ok to walk away, im just not sure if Freeborn knows when is enough.
Just wait til he gets his walking papers from the Airport were he sits on a board, now that will be something to see based on his actions of the last few weeks.
RB