By Tim Gardner
Avery County voters will cast ballots Tuesday, May 8 to decide winners of primary elections in which 24 candidates are seeking public offices.
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Avery County offices open this year include: Commissioner, Board of Education, Sheriff, Clerk of Court and Soil and Water Supervisor.
Three seats are open on the County Commission. The two candidates with the most votes will serve four-year terms, while the candidate with the third most votes will serve a two-year term. Two seats are open on the Board of Education. The winners for Sheriff, Clerk of Court, Board of Education and Soil and Water will all serve four-year terms.
Candidates for county offices include: incumbent Kevin Frye and Jason Lolies for Sheriff; incumbent Lisa Daniels for Clerk of Court; incumbents Blake Vance and Wood Hall (Woody) Young, Jr., along with Gerald McKinney, Sam Laws, Clayton Harpold, Rose Trivett Gates, Jonathan Sheppard, Dennis Aldridge and Dick Crews for County Commissioner.
All are Republicans, except Crews, who is a Democrat. Crews will not run until the November 6 General Election.
Since Daniels is unopposed for Clerk of Court, she also will not be on the ballot until the General Election.
Incumbent Steve Smith along with Pat Edwards, Katie Lynn Calloway, Frances Magruder and Jane Bumgarner are candidates for the non-partisan Board of Education.
Edwards and Bumgarner are sisters.
Avery voters also will join those from Watauga, Mitchell, Yancey and Madison counties in electing a District Attorney for their 35th District. That prosecutorial district was recently changed in number from the 24th to the 35th. Republican incumbent Seth Banks is unopposed for District Attorney, so he will not be on the ballot until November’s General Election.
Avery voters will join those from Mitchell and McDowell Counties in electing a State Representative (House Member) for the 85th District and from Burke and Caldwell counties in electing a State Senator for the 46th District. The winners of the District Attorney, State House and State Senate races will serve four-year terms.
Republican incumbent Warren Daniel and Democrat Art Sherman are 46th District State Senate candidates and Republican incumbent Josh Dobson and Democrat Howard Larsen are 85th District State House candidates.
Incumbent Virginia Foxx, Dillon Gentry, Cortland Meader, Jr., Denise Adams and Jennifer Marshall are candidates for United States House (Congress) for North Carolina’s 5th District, which encompasses much of the northwestern portion of the state, including Avery County and stretching East to include a portion of Winston-Salem.
Foxx, Gentry and Meader, Jr. are Republicans. Adams and Marshall are Democrats.
An Avery County voting canvass will be held Friday, May 18. According to elections officials, the State Board of Elections will hold a voting canvass between one to two weeks after the local county canvasses. Any runoff elections would be scheduled after the state canvass.
A candidate of any political party can run for office in a primary. Candidates who win a primary or are unopposed in a primary would then be candidates in the General Election on November 6.
Because the Board of Education race is non-partisan, there will be only one election (the primary) for its candidates. The Soil & Water Supervisor also is non-partisan and its candidates will only be on the General Election ballot in November. There will be no runoffs in either of those two elections. The top two candidates in votes received in both races will automatically be elected regardless of how many votes they win by.
Filing for Soil & Water Supervisor can be done at the Avery Board of Elections from June 11 at 12:00 noon through July 6 at 12:00 noon.
All judicial filings (Superior and District Court offices) must be done through the State Board of Elections Office in Raleigh from June 18 at 12:00 noon until June 29 at 12:00 noon.
Avery County has the following nineteen voting precincts:
Altamont; Banner Elk; Beech Mountain; Cary’s Flat; Cranberry; Elk Park; Frank; Heaton; Hughes; Ingalls; Linville; Minneapolis; Montezuma; Newland 1; Newland 2; Pineola; Plumtree; Pyatte; and Roaring Creek.