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Avery Voters to Choose from 17 Candidates in May’s Primary Election for County Offices

By Tim Gardner

Filing has ended for the 2022 May primary elections for county, regional, state and national offices. A total of 17 candidates are seeking local public offices in Avery County, plus numerous other candidates to regional, state and national offices.

Voters will cast ballots on Tuesday, May 17 in primary elections to pick candidates who will advance to run in November’s General Election. Or if they’re running for a non-partisan office, the candidates who receive the most votes in the primary election will win election to the office for which he or she filed. 

Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on primary election day.

Avery County offices open this year include: Sheriff, County Commissioner, Board of Education and Clerk of Superior Court.

Candidates for county offices include: Lee Buchanan, Mike Henley and Russell Carver for Sheriff; incumbent Teresa Benfield for Clerk of Superior  Court; incumbents Blake Vance, Dennis Aldridge and Wood Hall (Woodie) Young, Jr., along with Derek Buchanan, Glenn Johnson and Robert Burleson for County Commissioner; incumbents and sisters Pat Ellis Edwards and Jane Ellis Bumgarner, along with Linda Webb, Randy Singleton, Dennis Brown, Casey Lee and Dustin Trice for the non-partisan Board of Education.

Three seats are open for County Commissioner and two seats are open on the Board of Education. 

Since Benfield is unopposed for Clerk of Court, she will not be on the ballot until the General Election on November 8.

The Sheriff, County Commissioner, and Clerk of Superior Court elections are a Republican primary.

Also, Avery County voters will join those from Watauga, Mitchell, Yancey and Madison counties in electing a District Attorney for District Number 35.  Banks will also not be listed on the primary election ballot since he is unopposed.

Avery voters also will join those from Mitchell, Yancey and parts of McDowell counties in electing a State Representative (House Member) for District Number 85 and voters from Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga, Madison, Yancey, Mitchell counties and parts of Haywood and Caldwell counties in electing a State Senator for District Number 47.

For district offices, Republican incumbent Seth Banks filed for re-election as District Attorney; Republican incumbents Deanna Ballard of Blowing Rock and Ralph Hise of Spruce Pine filed for State Senate; and Republican incumbent Dudley Greene, a Newland native and current resident of Marion, and Democrat Robert Sherrill Cordle, also of Marion, filed for State House. 

Incumbent Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk, Michael Ackerman of Boone and Bernard Kyle Parrish of Cary filed for United States House (Congress) for North Carolina’s District Number 5, which besides Avery, includes, Mitchell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Surry, Stokes, Davie, Yadkin and parts of both Caldwell and Forsyth counties. 

Foxx and Ackerman are Republicans. Parrish is a Democrat.

Early voting in Avery County will be held on the following days: Thursday, April 28; Friday, April 29; Monday, May 2; Tuesday, May 3; Wednesday, May 4: Thursday, May 5; Friday, May 6; Monday, May 9; Tuesday, May 10; Wednesday, May 11; Thursday, May 12; Friday, May 13; and Saturday May 14.  Early voting will only be held at the Avery County Senior Citizens Center, located at 165 Shultz Circle in Newland from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. each of those days, except for Saturday, May 14, when voting must be done within the hours of 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. That is the only Saturday when early voting may be done.

A voting canvas in Avery County will be conducted by election officials on Friday, May 27.

Avery County Board of Elections Deputy Director Joseph Trivette said if there is a run-off in any local/state offices in the primary election, it would be held on Tuesday, July 5 and any runoffs for Federal/State offices would be held on July 26.

For more information about Avery County elections, call its Board of Elections office at (828) 733-8282 or log online to: 

https://www.averycountync.gov/departments/board_elections_office.php

The North Carolina Supreme Court had postponed the originally scheduled March 8 primary elections to May 17 and suspended candidate filing for several weeks while the trial judges heard testimony and received filings due to philosophical differences involving the redrawing of the state’s Congressional voting maps. After the filing suspension was lifted, the deadline to file to run in a 2022 North Carolina election (other than as a write-in candidate) was Friday, March 4 at 12:00 noon.

A complete list of candidates grouped by contest was supplied to High Country Press by the Avery County Board of Elections and can be accessed by clicking on the below file.