Vote totals rolled in Thursday night in the 2023 Charlotte municipal elections, in which voters approved school bonds and voted for the three school board candidates endorsed by Mecklenburg County Democrats — but in one key race, a Republican City Council member appeared poised to hold off a challenger.
The results were posted shortly after the polls closed at 7:30 pm. It will likely take several hours for county election officials to tabulate and release full results.
In key races, early results and the 83% of precincts reporting by about 9:20 showed:
- Charlotte City Council District 6: Republican incumbent Tariq Bokhari overcame an early voting deficit to take the lead against Democrat Stephanie Hand and apparently secure reelection. With all precincts in the district reporting, Bokhari led by 352 votes, 50.7% to 49.2%. That's a reversal from Hand's earlier lead of over 1,300 votes. Tuesday's vote was a repeat of their last matchup. A year ago, Hand led Bokhari by about 800 votes after early voting and mail ballots. Bokhari came back to win on the strength of Election Day voting, winning by 357 votes overall.
If Hand won the race, it would have given Democrats a 10-1 advantage on City Council. That would be their largest advantage since the city went to partisan elections in the mid-1970s. Democrats have held a 9-2 advantage since 2011. District 6 is in south Charlotte, which historically has favored Republicans. - School bond referendum: The $2.5 billion school bond package was approved by a 63%-37% margin.
- CMS board: The three school board members endorsed by Mecklenburg County Democrats — Lenora Shipp, Monty Witherspoon and Liz Monterrey — were leading the 14-member field.
Here are some other early results:
- Charlotte Mayor: Vi Lyles was on track to easily win reelection, in a race where she faced no serious opposition. Lyles had 74% of the vote.
- Charlotte City Council: Aside from District 6, there were no competitive races. The City Council will consist of
- At-large members Dimple Ajmera, Victoria Watlington, James "Smuggie" Mitchell and LaWana Slack-Mayfield.
- Dante Anderson, District 1
- Malcolm Graham, District 2
- Tiawana Brown, District 3
- Renee Johnson, District 4
- Marjorie Molina, District 5
- Ed Driggs, District 7
- Around Mecklenburg County:
- Christy Clark, a former state representative, won the mayor’s race in Huntersville with 49% of the vote in a three-way race. She beat Dan Boone and Derek Partee.
- In Pineville, David Phillips was up by just 28 votes over Ed Samaha in that town’s mayor’s race.
- In Cornelius, incumbent Mayor Woody Washam led challenger Denis Bilodeau by just 13 votes. All precincts have reported results, but provisional ballots haven’t been counted yet. There were 36 write-in votes in that contest.
