Election season quiet amid nine Pamlico towns

BAYBORO – The conclusion of early One Stop voting in Pamlico County Saturday mirrored the early 2007 turnout for elections in nine towns – small.

The One Stop was available only for Oriental, Bayboro and Alliance, with 112 residents casting ballots out of 1,926 eligible voters in the three towns. In 2007, less than 140 people voted early.

The most active by far this year was Oriental, site of a nine-person commissioners race, with 98 early voters.

The rest of the voters go to the polls Tuesday, between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., the statewide voting time period.

In the overall 2007 Pamlico town elections, which featured hotly contested board and mayor’s races in Oriental, Vandemere and Minnesott Beach, more tha 50 percent of the eligible voters turned out in those towns.

The county’s overall turnout was 31 percent among the nine towns from about 3,200 eligible voters.

There is just one officially contested race on this year’s ballot – nine candidates for five commissioner seats in Oriental.

Kathy Kellam, the top vote-getter in 2007, filed for re-election but later withdrew. The ballot includes incumbents Candy Bohmert, Sherrill Styron and David Cox; former board members Barb Venturi and Warren Johnson; and political newcomers Harvey Hardison, Bob Cowden, Dan Siren and Jennifer Roe.

County elections officials expect a good turnout in Minnesott Beach where the write-in announcement by incumbent commissioner Dave Stewart leaves voters with five choices for four seats. He joins former mayor Ray Lee, incumbents Eber Warren and Larry “Pete” Whorton, along with Tim Fowler.

In three towns – Mesic, Vandemere and Alliance – write-ins will be needed to fill a board seat in town due to a shortage of candidates.

The towns of Bayboro, Grantsboro, Arapahoe and Stonewall have candidate numbers that match the available seats.

Alliance has five seats and four candidates, and is the only Pamlico town without a mayor’s entry on the ballot. The candidate with the most votes gets the mayor’s job.

None of the county’s mayors are challenged, although Bayboro will have a new person at the helm. Incumbent Paige Ackiss did not refile, and former mayor and current commissioner Keith Cowell is seeking the mayor’s job.

Bayboro is the only town in the county that does not elect its entire board each two years, instead having staggered terms for the mayor and two board members this year, and three board members on alternate election years.

Incumbent Roosevelt Stokes Jr. seeks re-election and newcomer Mickey Buck is running for Cowell’s board seat.

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or chall@freedomenc.com.