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7,000 voted early in Burke County

Polls open today at 6:30 a.m.

By Steve Welker | The News Herald

Published: November 2, 2009

Updated: 11/03/2009 06:00 am

Morganton, NC - Nearly 7,000 people already have cast ballots during early voting in the Burke County school board and municipal elections.
Today is everyone else's turn.
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
Voters in Connelly Springs, Drexel, Glen Alpine, Hildebran, Rutherford College and Valdese will be electing mayors and/or aldermen or town council members.
However, the most closely watched and hotly contested races are the countywide elections to fill four seats on the Burke County Board of Education.
Three incumbents are seeking re-election to the board, but one, current board Chair Tracy Norman of Morganton, is running for a different seat. She's vying to complete the remaining two years of David Barnard's unexpired term representing the Western District.
Also seeking that seat are Susan Stroup, a retired elementary-school principal, and Bill Crump, whose experience in manufacturing and industry includes 30 years with General Electric. Both are from Morganton, as is Elizabeth Peterson who also filed for the seat, but withdrew from the race and cast her support to Stroup and the rest of what's come to be known as the SWAT team.
(Election officials point out that people whose names remain on the ballot still could be elected and take office, even though they publicly announced their intention to withdraw from a race.)
Incumbents Sam Wilkinson of Valdese and Buddy Armour are two other SWAT members (the acronym stands for Stroup, Wilkinson, Armour and Thomas). Both men have served about 12 years on the school board. Wilkinson is a retired educator; Armour runs his own furniture-design business.
Wilkinson is running for the Eastern District seat. Dianne Mobley's name also is on the ballot for that seat, but she withdrew from the race in September.
In addition to Armour, there are two names on the ballot for the Central District seat. James O. Stamey is a former county and schools maintenance worker, currently unemployed and studying political science at Western Piedmont Community College. Creag Hanson, who operates a bail bonds company, withdrew from the race. All live in Morganton.
There are two newcomers, both from Morganton, running for the Western District's full four-year term on the board. They are Catherine Thomas, a corporate attorney, and Linda Minich, an educator and coordinator of the Big Brother Big Sister program. A third candidate in that race, Justin Tate, has withdrawn and thrown his support to Thomas.
Regardless of what happens today, Burke County Board of Elections director Greer Suttlemyre said it's already been a unique election with much-higher-than-normal voting. Slightly more than 8,000 people cast ballots in the 2007 school board election. In the past two and a half weeks, 6,974 voted at the two early voting locations in Morganton. In addition, the board of elections sent out more than 400 absentee ballots.
Suttlemyre said early voting is usually a good predictor of what happens on election day, so he's expecting a large turnout.
The first precinct results may be available as early as 8 p.m., he said. People can watch the results in the multi-purpose room at the Foothills Higher Education Center in Morganton or on the World Wide Web at the N.C. State Board of Elections Web site, http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/Burke/1...