DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711051152

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS                  LENGTH:   65 lines

ERRORS DELAY VOTE RESULTS IN KILL DEVIL HILLS

More than 30 percent of the registered voters in the Outer Banks' biggest town turned out to cast ballots in Tuesday's race.

But about 200 of the voters didn't correctly color in all the ovals on their ballots, and the machine that counts the votes rejected them.

At 8:15 p.m., almost an hour after the polls closed, election officials had to drive a new machine from their Manteo office to Kill Devil Hills.

They planned to try to resubmit all of the ballots in hopes that the new machine would electronically tally them. But Elections Supervisor Lynda Midgett said her staff probably would have to hand count those 200 ballots.

``You've got some people that just will not follow instructions,'' Midgett said.

Although most of the towns' election results were in by 8:30 p.m., Midgett predicted that Kill Devil Hills voters would not know who won the hotly contested races until at least 10 or 11 p.m.

Tuesday morning, the candidates who were divided on issues during the campaign took opposite sides of the sidewalk when they greeted voters at the town hall election booths.

Commissioner E.M. ``Coy'' Harbeson, who was running for mayor, and political newcomers J. Howard Kimble and Bill Pitt, who were running for council seats, stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the north edge of the concrete walkway, shaking hands and greeting voters in the warm November sunshine.

The men, who ran as a slate, each sported red lapel buttons bearing all three names with bold check marks beside them. And they echoed each others' promises to reduce taxes and cut trash pickups if elected. They were hopeful that by running together on a single ticket, they could change spending practices in their town - which has the highest tax rate on the Outer Banks.

``Tax reduction is the issue that rings a bell with everyone in this town,'' said Pitt, 59, a Navy veteran who has been Harbeson's neighbor for many years. ``Kill Devil Hills residents pay about 10 percent higher taxes now than people in other North Carolina towns. We need to get that down to a more livable level.''

Harbeson, a 60-year-old retired Coast Guardsman who has been on the board for four years, agreed. With his wife and two grandchildren smiling beside him, he beamed beneath the brim of his khaki Greek fisherman's cap and spoke of trimming taxes. While logging more than 40 miles on his bicycle to meet constituents during the recent campaign, he said, taxes seemed to be the issue most people wanted to talk about.

``For eight months of the year, we can cut back from two trash pickups a week to one,'' Harbeson said. ``That'll save more than $70,000 in tax dollars. And it'll cut at least a penny off our tax rate.''

The town's tax rate is 42.5 cents per $100 of property value. Kimble, a 54-year-old retired manager for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, said he can chop it to 37 cents. ``The town's travel and training budget has a tremendous amount of fat,'' he said.

Sherry Rollason, who was running for mayor, Commissioner Jeff Shields, who was seeking re-election, and 11th-hour commission candidate Jim Basnight were spread out on the sidewalk's southern side, sipping bottled water and waving to neighbors. Each seemed to have an individual agenda. And they were less specific about their goals and objectives - though rather pointed about reasons for running.

``I don't think a team should run the town,'' said Basnight, a 59-year-old lighting and appliance store owner who has never run for office before but put in his bid this fall when he heard about Harbeson's three-member slate. ``When that happens, what you get is a one-person party making all the decisions. We're independent.'' KEYWORDS: ELECTION

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