By Tim Gardner
North Carolina’s candidate filing period for the 2024 election began on Monday, December 4, at noon, and ended at noon, on Friday, December 15, with 16 filing for local Avery County offices.
The 2024 Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, March 5.
Seven filed for the three available seats on the Avery County Board of Commissioners, including two incumbents–Board Chairman Tim Phillips and Board Vice-Chairman Dennis Aldridge. Also filing were former County Commissioner Bill Beuttell, Wayne Benfield, Jr., Josh Aldridge, Jason Grindstaff, and Mike Minter.
All but Minter are Republicans. Minter is a Democrat.
Unlike the other candidates, Minter will not have to run in the Primary Election. He will run against the three Republicans who receive the most Primary Election votes in the General Election on Tuesday, November 5.
The top two vote-getters for County Commissioner in the General Election will receive four-year terms, while the third-place finisher will get a two-year term.
Martha Hicks, who is entering her sixteenth year as a County Commissioner, including the past eight as Chairwoman, announced that she will not seek re-election next year. She asked her fellow-commissioners not to consider reappointing her as Chairwoman as she felt another commissioner needed to start filling that role.
Phillips was chosen as her successor in the Chairperson’s post at the commissioners’ regular monthly meeting on December 4. Dennis Aldridge was also chosen Board Vice-Chairman then. Both were by votes of their fellow-commissioners present at the meeting.
In the non-partisan Avery County Board of Education race, eight filed for the three seats available in next year’s election. They include: Linda Webb, Michelle Krege Burnop, Casey Lee, Jason Coleman, Scott Stanford, David Wright, Jeffrey Keller, and Ivy Vance Stafford.
In the Board of Education race, those who win the primary election are automatically elected and do not have to run in the General Election later the same year. There are also no run-off or second primary elections in a North Carolina Board of Education race, meaning that a candidate does not have to obtain a certain percentage of the vote to win. If a candidate only wins the Primary Election by one vote, he or she will serve on the Board.
The School Board will have three new members starting in 2024 as neither of the two current incumbents—Chairman John Greene and Vice-Chairwoman Kathey Aldridge– are running for re-election and the third board seat has been vacant since June 2022 when Ruth Shirley resigned.
As with the county commission, there are normally five Board of Education members and votes were taken several times among current Board members to appoint Steve Smith or Linda Webb to fill the remainder of Shirley’s term, which is set to expire in 2024. However, the Board members were deadlocked about either Smith or Webb filling the vacancy.
Smith is a former Board member and Webb was a candidate in the 2022 Board of Education election. Webb finished third in the election behind then first-time candidate Randy Singleton and incumbent Pat Edwards for the then-two open seats.
Appointing Smith or Webb to fill the vacancy would have had to be by a 3-1 majority or a unanimous (4-0) vote among current Board of Education members. But a 2-2 deadlock remained with Greene and Aldridge voting for Smith and Edwards and Singleton voting for Webb every time a vote was taken.
Those four current Board of Education members could also have chosen to vote for someone besides Smith or Webb to fill Shirley’s vacant seat.
But they decided by a unanimous 4-0 vote at their December 12 regular monthly meeting to appoint the person who receives the most votes in the election to begin serving the day after (March 6) to fill the Board vacancy to add to his or her term, which will begin on July 1. That person and the other two elected to the Board of Education will be sworn in for their four-year terms on that latter date.
The Avery County Register of Deeds seat will also be open in 2024. Erin Grindstaff English was the only person to file for the office. She was appointed Register of Deeds by the Avery County Republican (GOP) Executive Committee when former Register of Deeds Renee Dellinger retired on March 31, 2023.
English was an Assistant Register of Deeds in Avery County at the time of her promotion to Register of Deeds after having also previously served as a Deputy Register of Deeds.
The Register of Deeds post is for a four-year term.
National and state offices will also be on the ballot across North Carolina for the highly-anticipated 2024 election.
The top national offices North Carolina voters will select candidates to are United States President and Congress.
Neither of North Carolina’s United States Senators, Republicans Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, face elections next year. Tillis’ seat won’t be open again until 2026. Budd’s seat won’t be open until 2028.
Avery County was previously in United States Congressional District 11, then was reassigned to District 5, and the entire county was moved back to District 11 by vote of the North Carolina General Assembly (House and Senate), starting with the 2024 General Election. As a result, parts of Avery County will not be in one district while its other sections are in another as has previously happened.
First-term Congressman Chuck Edwards (Republican-Henderson County ) filed for re-election. Clay County Republican Christian Reagan and Buncombe County legislator, Democrat Caleb Rudow, also filed for the seat.
The winner will represent the new District 11, which includes the following counties: Avery, Mitchell, Yancey, Madison, Buncombe, Haywood, Swain, Jackson, McDowell, Henderson, Transylvania, Graham, Macon, Cherokee, Clay, and parts of Polk.
As a result of the district change, Avery County will no longer be represented by United States Congresswoman, Republican Virginia Foxx, who will serve District 5 and also faces re-election.
On the state level, candidates filed for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Commissioners of Agriculture, Insurance, and Labor. Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and State Auditor candidates will also run. Additionally, the Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court (Seat 6) is open as are three seats (4, 5, and 15) on the fifteen-member State Court of Appeals.
Various regional Superior and District Court Judgeships and District Attorney seats will also be on the ballot.
In District 35, which consists of Avery, Watauga, Mitchell, Yancey, and Madison counties, Ted McEntire of Mitchell County filed for Superior Court Judge, Seat 2. He is currently a District Court Judge for District 35.
Current District 35 Superior Court Judge (Seat 2) R. Greg Horne is not seeking re-election.
In District 35, incumbent District Court Judge Rebecca Eggers-Gryder of Watauga County filed for re-election for the Number 2 seat.
Also, Milton Fletcher of Mitchell County filed for District Court Judge, Number 3 seat and Alexandria (Allie) Leake of Madison County filed for District Court Judge, Number 4 seat.
McEntire, Eggers-Gryder, and Fletcher are Republicans. Leake is a Democrat.
State Commissioner of Labor, Republican Josh Dobson, of McDowell County and formerly of Avery County, who announced in December 2022 that he would not seek re-election, will be leaving office in 2024.
In the North Carolina General Assembly, the State House of Representatives District 85 seat is open. Republican incumbent Dudley Greene of Avery County filed for re-election.
Also, Democrat John Ford of Mitchell County filed for the seat.
District 85 includes Avery, Mitchell, Yancey counties as well as most of McDowell County.
Also in the General Assembly, the Senate District 47 seat, currently held by Ralph Hise (Republican, Mitchell County), is open in 2024. Hise filed for re-election. Democrat Frank Hughes, III, from Avery County, also filed for the office.
Counties that make up the State Senate, District 47, also approved by the General Assembly, include: Avery, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Mitchell, Yancey, Madison, and parts of Haywood and Caldwell.
The deadline to register to vote in the 2024 Primary Election is Friday, February 9.
Although the Primary Election isn’t until March 5, voting begins nearly two months prior. On Friday, January 19, county boards of elections will begin mailing absentee ballots to eligible voters who request them.
Absentee ballots must be returned no later than 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
In-person early voting begins on Thursday, February 15 and ends on Saturday, March 2.
Registration and absentee ballot deadlines are different for military and overseas voters. Specific instructions about each can be obtained by contacting the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Additionally, write-In candidacy filings start on Wednesday, August 7.
For more details about registering to vote, running for office, actual voting, to view previous election results, or for related information, call the North Carolina State Board of Elections office at (919) 814-0700 or log onto its Internet website at: ncsbe.gov.
The complete list of those who filed for offices by counties and contests across the state for the 2024 Primary Election can be accessed by logging onto the following website link: https://www.ncsbe.gov/results-data/candidate-lists.
Election information may also be obtained by calling your local Board of Elections office. The Avery County Board of Elections telephone number is: (828) 733-8282.
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