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Election officials gear up for fall voting

By Steve Welker | The News Herald

Published: February 26, 2009

Morganton, NC - The fall 2009 elections are about 250 days away, but voters and elections officials in Burke County already are looking ahead to Nov. 3.
On Thursday, coincidentally, both Debbie Mace, an elections specialist for the Burke County Board of Elections, and Nancy Brewer, an administrative specialist for the city of Morganton, were double-checking their schedules and updating the lists of upcoming races. Both said they already have heard from a number of people interested in election information.
The Burke County Board of Elections this year will supervise the voting for the Burke County Public Schools Board of Education and six of the county's towns and cities. The filing date for people to throw their names into those political contests is a little more than four months away.
The filing period starts at noon July 6 and ends at noon July 20. No nominating petitions are required. Citizens can put their names on the ballot by simply filling out the appropriate forms at the Burke County Board of Elections office and paying a filing fee, usually $5 to $15 for municipal seats and $20 for school board seats.
Voters will fill three seats on the Burke County school board. The incumbents are Robert E. "Buddy" Armour in the Central District, Sam Wilkinson in the Eastern District and Tracy Norman in the Western District. Candidates must live in the district whose seat they seek. The Burke County Board of Elections has a detailed map of the school-board districts in its office at 201 W. Meeting St.
Rutherford College, Connelly Springs, Glen Alpine, Valdese, Drexel and Hildebran will have municipal elections in November.
The positions to be filled and the incumbents are:
n Connelly Springs: Mayor Carl Greene and aldermen Terry Childers, Ramona Duncan and Kevin Duckworth.
n Drexel: Mayor Richard Propst and aldermen Robert Allen Reed and Danny Ritchie.
n Glen Alpine: Mayor Christine Abernathy and aldermen Norman J. "Jack" King, Gerald W. "Jerry" Orders and Terry Pendley.
n Hildebran: Mayor C. Wendell Hildebrand and council members Emily Williamson, Mike Orders and Michael Stroupe.
n Rutherford College: Mayor Jimmy Huffman and council members Jennifer Abernathy, Yates Jensen Sr. and Gary McClure.
n Valdese: Mayor James Hatley and council members Susan Stevenson in Ward 2 and John F. "Chip" Black in Ward 3 and a vacant seat in Ward 1 that Granville Morrow, who recently died, held.
The city of Morganton conducts its own elections. Its process formally begins when the City Council appoints a new Board of Elections whose members will take office in June to direct the non-partisan election and runoff.
Two Morganton City Council seats will be up for voters' consideration this year — District 3, in which the incumbent is John Cantrell, and District 4 now represented by Dr. Alfred Hamer Jr. Anyone running for those seats must live in the same district.
Brewer said the State Board of Elections still needs to confirm the dates for Morganton's municipal election.
The towns, cities and county commissioners still have months in which to decide whether to put public issues before the voters. According to the Burke County Board of Elections, the deadline probably will be sometime in September, but a firm date has not been set. The time required to print ballots generally determines the deadline for adding public issues.

On the Web:
Information on Morganton municipal elections and voter registration: http://www.ci.morganton.nc.us/html/cg-city_electio...
Burke County Board of Elections: http://co.burke.nc.us/departments/board-of-electio...