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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 47
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
NCCU Beats NC A&T for MEAC Championship, Bid to Celebration Bowl
North Carolina Central Uni
versity was tired of sharing.
After earning conference co
championships in each of the last
two seasons, NCCU captured
the Mid-Eastern Athletic Con
ference title outright and a bid
to the second annual Air Force
Reserve Celebration Bowl with
a 42-21 victory over rival North
Carolina A&T State University
inside an overflowing O’Kelly-
Riddick Stadium on Saturday.
For NCCU (9-2, 8-0 MEAC),
the 20th-ranked team in the FCS
Coaches Poll, it is the first time
in the gridiron program’s his
tory the Eagles have won three
straight conference champion
ships. And like the previous two,
this regular season ends with
a triumph over its nationally-
ranked rival.
North Carolina A&T (9-2,
7-1 MEAC) entered the contest
at No. 9 in the coaches poll and
with the nation’s fifth-ranked
run defense, but NCCU senior
quarterback Malcolm Bell and
sophomore running back Dorrel
McClain combined for 240 yards
and five touchdowns on the
ground. The Aggies had not al
lowed a 100-yard rusher all sea
son... until Saturday. Bell rushed
for a game-high 131 yards and
two touchdowns, while McClain
tallied 109 rushing yards with
three trips to the end zone.
Bell added 184 yards and a
touchdown on lO-for-18 pass
ing to finish with 315 yards of
total offense. His scoring toss
traveled 24 yards to the left hand
- and only the left hand - of ju
nior receiver Khalil Stinson for
a spectacular catch. Senior wide
receiver LaVontis Smith had a
team-best for receptions for 83
yards.
And while the NCCU offense
posted the most points against
the Aggies since 1984 and the
second-most in the 88 match-
ups of the series, the Eagles also
soared defensively. Tarik Cohen,
the nation’s third-leading rusher
with 1,436 yards prior to Satur
day, was held to just 82 yards
and an average of on 3.6 yards
per carry.
Senior linebacker LeGrande
Harley amassed a game-high
10 tackles, including 1.5 ofNC-
CU’s eight stops behind the line
of scrimmage. Sophomore safety
Alden McClellon collected eight
takedowns, including a hit for a
loss with a forced fumble, a fum
ble recovery and a pass break-
up. Fellow sophomore safety
Davanta Reynolds also had eight
tackles with 2.5 hits for a loss.
Yet another sophomore safety
Jaquell Taylor and junior corner-
back Mike Jones recorded inter
ceptions for the Eagles.
NCCU has now won 15 in-
a-row against MEAC teams
and boasts a 21-3 record versus
league foes in three seasons un
der head coach Jerry Mack, in
cluding a 3-0 mark against the
Aggies.
With the outright MEAC title
in hand, the Eagles will prepare
to take on the SWAC champion
in the second annual Air Force
Reserve Celebration Bowl inside
the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on
Dec. 17 at 12 noon, televised on
ABC.
Name of segregationist
governor may not stay on
NC school
GREENSBORO (AP) - A
middle school in Guilford Coun
ty now named after a governor
who was a segregationist could
be renamed for a desegregation
champion.
The News & Record of
Greensboro reports (http://bit.
ly/2f79dlA) members of the
county’s education board are
seeking comments on the name
change for Aycock Middle
School to Swann Middle School.
NCCU Eagles Celebrate MEAC Championship (Photo NCCU Athletic Department)
N Carolina election board takes
Bladen protest, not others
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North
Carolina election officials
declined Nov. 20 to step in
and resolve dozens of local
voting complaints as Re
publican Gov. Pat McCro
ry’s campaign had request
ed, although they did take
over one protest in Bladen
County alleging absentee
voter fraud.
The State Board of
Elections met by phone
as county election boards
hoped this coming week
to tally their final ballot
results that could affect
too-close-to-call races for
governor and state auditor.
Unofficial results from the
state board show Democrat
Roy Cooper leading Mc
Crory by 6,600 votes from
nearly 4.7 million cast.
The five-member board,
three Republicans and two
Democrats, debated but
didn’t grant the request by
McCrory’s campaign to
take over jurisdiction of at
least 50 protests covering
35 counties. Most current
protests allege some votes
shouldn’t be counted be
cause the voter died before
Election Day, is a convicted
felon or voted in multiple
locations. At least six pro
tests allege absentee fraud.
Campaign manager Rus
sell Peck wrote the state
board late last week saying
it should rule on the
protests, rather than coun
ty boards of elections, to
prevent uneven local rul
ings and “facilitate a quick
er resolution of the issues
raised by the protests.”
But board members de
cided they wanted local
boards to hear evidence and
make decisions. Their rul
ings could still be appealed
to the state board, whose
members are appointed by
the governor.
“It would be a mistake
for (us) to take up local pro
tests,” Democratic board
member Joshua Malcolm
said, adding local boards
“need to make fact finding
decisions.”
Republican member
Rhonda Amoroso, how
ever, said the pending pro
tests need to be settled be
cause the public may view
them and believe “we have
a systemic issue here of
fraudulent voter activities.”
If someone who is ineligi
ble to vote is able to cast a
ballot, she added, “it puts a
cloud over the integrity of
the election process in our
state.”
The state board did
agree it would provide le
gal guidance to county
boards considering protests
and scheduled a meeting
Nov. 22 to take suggestions
about what exactly the le
gal advice should be.
The Bladen County
protest, which the state
board also agreed unani
mously to take over, and
related documents allege
a handful of people may
have signed and filled out
roughly 150 absentee bal
lots. State board staff al
ready has been involved in
the case, elections director
Kim Strach said.
Save for a protest over
the counting of 94,000
early votes in Durham
County - rejected unani
mously by the local board
last Friday - the number of
ballots at issue in the other
disclosed protests are less
than the current margin in
the governor’s race. Mc
Crory’s team has said the
protests have unveiled po
tentially widespread fraud
that needs to be addressed
before all votes are tallied.
Cooper’s campaign has
pointed out the outgoing
attorney general’s lead
over McCrory has widened
since the 5,000-vote mar
gin on election night. The
campaign considers the
extensive protests a sign of
the governor’s desperation.
“Gov. McCrory is do
ing everything he can to
undermine the results of
this election and the will of
the people. But we won’t
let him,” Cooper says in a
video released Nov. 20.
A deadline last Friday
for boards of elections in
all 100 counties to complete their tabulations came and
went as protests slowed down their process.
Boards also were awaiting details from the state be
fore deciding whether provisional ballots cast by people
who believed they registered to vote or updated their reg
istration at Division of Motor Vehicles offices since last
year should count. A federal judge ruled these should be
counted unless DMV officials proved they declined to
register. About 1,500 such votes will be counted, accord
ing to a state board list.
Democrat’s lead widens in
North Carolina governor’s
race
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Hardly anyone in North Carolina is willing
to guess when their excruciatingly close governor’s race will be re
solved. A Friday Nov. 18, deadline came and went with Democratic
Attorney General Roy Cooper’s unofficial advantage growing to
about 6,600 votes over Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, from nearly
4.7 million cast.
McCrory is fighting for his political life in a battleground state
that Donald Trump and Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr won by
relatively comfortable margins.
After endless legal battles over how, when and where people can
vote, they’re fighting now over whether to count 60,000 provision
al ballots and thousands more absentee ballots that have remained
sealed since Election Day.
Still more delays are in store as McCrory’s campaign supports al
legations of hard-knuckled fraud lodged by voters in more than half
the state’s 100 counties.
If Cooper’s margin remains below 10,000 votes, McCrory can
call for a statewide recount, and with the possibility of other legal
challenges and conceivably even legislative intervention to decide a
contested result, few outside Cooper’s campaign are ready to put a
date on the naming of the next governor.
“This is unprecedented,” said Brad Crone, a longtime Democratic
consultant and North Carolina history buff. “This is new waters that
we’re sailing into.”
The two Republicans and one Democrat on each county’s elec
tions boaird have been meeting this week deciding whether to toss out
or unseal and count each of the remaining ballots.
The largest challenge was unanimously dismissed Nov. 18 by the
board in heavily Democratic Durham County, where a handful of
computer cards got overloaded with ballots cast by early voters, forc
ing officials to hand-count 94,000 votes from the paper record.