GREENSBORO-Phase one in the challenge of last year’s Greensboro Mayor’s election is over. Tuesday afternoon both sides concluded their examinations of the ballots, which had gone on for a month.

Walter Braswell, attorney for challenger Vanessa Hill said there was still a long way to go, but they were at least moving forward. Braswell said he felt satisfied with the investigation and both sides were ready to move to the next step.

“We are done as far as the examination of the material is concerned,” Braswell said. “We have gone through applications, affidavits, ballots and the envelopes that were used in some cases. We also looked at some of the identification we felt might be suspect.”

The process was long and slow. Braswell said they literally looked over thousands of pieces of paper. However, he said this was necessary to find suspect ballots and other documents to put together a case.

“There were several thousands of pieces of paper,” Braswell said. “We were basically going through the information so we could put together a list of the voters we felt were suspect in the case.”

Braswell said according to the code they would have one week from Wednesday to get the list together and present it. They would also have to present that list to Pompey at least 10 days before the trial.

They will have seven days to file their findings in Montgomery Circuit Court. Their claims must be filed with Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy by Aug. 10 explaining why each side feels a vote should or should not be counted.

Braswell said it was tough to say when the challenge would go to trial. He said that would depend on scheduling and other trials already on the docket. However, he did say he felt they were making progress.

“We’re moving along,” Braswell said. “I would just like to thank all of the volunteers we had. They put aside a lot of time to help us out and worked hard during the session.”