WINDSOR – It looks like it may be fourth and long for the mixed beverage referendum in Bertie County.

Following Friday’s approval of 20 provisional ballots by the Bertie County Board of Elections, little changed from the original tally in which the referendum was defeated.

Bertie County Elections Director Shirlie Davenport reported that 20 ballots were approved, but only 19 have been tallied. The other will be formally counted today (Tuesday) before the election canvassing.

With the 19 provisional ballots, the mixed beverage referendum now stands to be defeated by a mere 12 votes. The current tally stands at 695 against with 683 for the measure.

The last hope for those wishing to see the measure pass will come today when canvassing is done to certify the election results. If no new information is found, the measure will be declared defeated.

If the referendum fails, the defeat will have happened in the Windsor II precinct where only eight of 114 voters cast ballots in favor of the measure.

The measure also lost in Snakebite (27-11), Indian Woods (14-9), Roxobel (90-60) and Colerain II (42-13).

The biggest support for the measure came in Windsor I where 181 people voted in favor and 137 against. It was also favored by one-stop voters by a count of 120-89.

Other precincts that approved of the mixed beverage referendum included Mitchells 1 (19-14), Whites (23-19), Merry Hill (27-16), Woodville (38-23), Mitchells II (119-108), Colerain I (35-20) and mail ballots (10-1).