Though it’s not something that Elizabeth City residents want to get used to, protests of local election results are not exactly a rarity in the River City. Last month’s 3rd Ward run-off election is the latest in which a long line of voting irregularities, challenges or close vote totals have resulted in post-election reviews.

In fact, it’s been eight years — four municipal elections ago — since city voters elected council and a mayor without a protest. That year, 2003, the city faced a possible recount after 2nd Ward incumbent councilman Zack Robertson lost a close election — five votes — to Anita Hummer. A count of provisional ballots, however, gave Hummer an additional two votes, making her margin recount-proof.

Two years later, in 2005, Bill Lehmann called for a recount after his 17-vote election loss to the Rev. Charles Foster in the city’s mayoral election run-off. Lehmann cited 44 undervotes — votes that could not be accounted for to either mayoral candidate — discovered in the recount. However, he decided not to protest the election after officials said it could take months to determine if the undervotes could have changed the election outcome — which was unlikely.

In 2007, voters and candidates got more involved. City resident John Krider filed a successful residency challenge against 3rd Ward incumbent councilman Darryl K. Stallings, claiming he did not live in the 3rd Ward, which he had been representing for 10 years.

The local elections board eventually called for a new election, which was held in February, pitting Michael Brooks against newcomer Daniel Evans for the second 3rd Ward seat. Evans won the election and joined the ward’s other elected member Rickey King on council.

Earlier, Brooks had filed an election protest over changes in the voting precincts, but the local elections board ruled that Brooks’ protest was filed too late and also that no laws were broken.

Also in 2007, 4th Ward voter Richard Gilbert filed a protest over the eligibility of students at Elizabeth City State University to vote in the election. He later dropped his protest.

Charges of fraudulent voting practices and residency issues involving ECSU students were also the sources of protests lodged two years later in 2009 when two unsuccessful city council candidates challenged the outcome of the 4th Ward election. The protests, filed by incumbent Councilwoman Volanda Watts and Lennard Bartlett Sr., were later dismissed by the county elections board.

Hence, protests and challenges have become an all-too familiar routine in the local municipal election process. Residents could face another one in the months ahead over the residency of 3rd Ward candidate Dennis Stallings’ family members, eight of whom claim to live at 305 Roanoke Avenue. That’s the focus of Michael Brooks’s current protest, now in the hands of the N.C. Board of Elections. The state will determine if a new run-off election is necessary, as the local elections board, and this newspaper believe it is.

While the state elections board works its way through the protest, the board ultimately affected — Elizabeth City City Council — is short one 3rd Ward councilor and is currently in a conundrum about what to do about it. The city has asked the state Attorney General’s office for guidance. Unless the AG’s office has a clear-cut answer, we urge council to do exactly nothing. Get to the public’s business and don’t try to fill the seat until an election determines who should represent the 3rd Ward.

Some current and ex-council members have weighed in about who should fill the open 3rd Ward seat, if the state elections board determines that a new run-off election is necessary.

A decision on a new election, which would be held sometime after Feb. 1, could be made in the coming week or so. However, the new city council is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday. At that time the new council will include Joe Peel as mayor, Jean Baker and Ray Donnelly representing the 1st Ward, Anita Hummer and Tony Stimatz representing the 2nd Ward, Johnnie Walton and Lena Hill-Lawrence representing the 4th Ward and newly-elected Kem Spence representing the 3rd Ward.

Granted, council will be one rep short, but that won’t stop them from managing the public’s business. In fact, it may head-off additional controversy that could and probably would arise over who is named to sit-in temporarily. That’s a disruption this council doesn’t need.

And speaking of disruption, council would be well-advised to remember that the individual appointed to council assumes the same rights and privileges of other elected councilors. That has potential consequences that may not be to council’s benefit. The result could be a hindrance that sidetracks council business even beyond a two-month term.

City council functions frequently with members absent due to work, family or other reasons. This is a case in which keeping it simple is a much less troublesome option than trying to elevate someone into the position. Furthermore, there’s no need for council to spend the public’s time and money weighing the potential candidates and finding a replacement who will only be active for a short period.

If the N.C. Board of Elections follows the local recommendation and calls for a new run-off, the obvious conclusion is that it believes no one has gained the right to claim that seat.

Hence, let the 3rd Ward voters decide who they want as their other representative on council.