The two, Michael Hawkins and James Mills, did, however, announce earlier in the year they intended to file as write-ins.

In the end, as the way the discrepancies were explained by the county board of elections, Manning withdrew his right to appeal to the state board.

Elections Board member Jane Watson told Manning, however, “We will address the concerns you have.”

Manning's protest came down to a discrepancy of 1,334 additional write-in votes on the hand counts over the machine count, he said in the protest that was filed today.

The hand count, he contended, showed the combined total for the two write-in candidates was 9,779. That number was 1,334 more than was counted by the machine.

Manning attributed this to votes he believed were improperly counted where voters had not filled in the oval circle before writing in the names of the candidates. It was clearly written at the top of the ballot that, when authorized, the voter may write in a candidate by filling the oval and then writing the name of the write-in candidate.

“I believe these issues bring into question the reliability and credibility of the Halifax County Board of Elections staff,” he wrote in the protest.

Elections Board member Sandy Partin said, however, as it ended up, “It sent a red flag to us as well. We had 14 precincts that tallied votes. Eleven did not. We tallied those.”

The state Board of Elections gave the local board the OK to audit the precincts, she said. “We had Democrats and Republicans working together. They have been seen by both Republicans and Democrats.”

The ballots that were not marked with an oval were not recognized by the machine, Partin said. “It was an honest error made by the precinct, an addition error. Once we audited the precinct, we got it.”

Once the error was explained to Manning, the board found no probable cause in his protest and Manning withdrew his right to appeal to the state board.

Manning said he was glad he went through the process. “I feel what I did was not wasted,” he told the board. “Someone would have had egg on their face if those results were certified.”

Commissioner Vernon Bryant, who won his bid for re-election in the general election, told the board, “I think you did a great job. I just think it's important you get the numbers right. It could have affected many elections.”

Said Watson: “We had a lot of scenarios with the write-ins. There were so many odd things done in this election.”

Board member Kenneth Harris said in the write-in campaign there were not only ovals not filled, but misspellings of the names people voted for that also voided the ballots.