BAKERSVILLE — The results from the Tuesday, Nov. 2 municipal elections in Spruce Pine and Bakersville are in and while mostly familiar names prevailed, there will be a new member on the Bakersville Town Council.
Mitchell High graduate Matthew Dale Staton finished as the top vote-getter in the Bakersville Town Council race, amassing 27 votes (39.71 percent). Staton will be joined on the council by incumbent Charles Nash who earned 22 votes (32.35 percent).
Staton and Nash edged out incumbent Jordon Baker (19 votes, 27.94 percent) who was elected in the November 2017 municipal election, finishing as the top vote-getter that year with 72 votes (39.13 percent).
All other races in the county saw incumbents running unopposed and prevailing despite some write-in votes.
Charles “Chuck” Vines cruised in the race for Bakersville Mayor, racking up 30 votes. There were two miscellaneous write-in votes cast.
Darla Phillips Harding will return as Spruce Pine Mayor after earning 68 votes (70.83 percent). Write-in candidate Wendy Sue Smith finished with 27 votes (28.13 percent).
Incumbents Larry McKinney and Jackie Rensink will keep their seats on the Spruce Pine Town Council. McKinney was the top vote-getter with 65 votes (35.33 percent) and Rensink garnered 59 votes (32.07 percent). Write-in candidates Michael Allen Hale (17.39 percent) and Hannah L. McCormick (14.67 percent) combined to earn 59 votes.
Voter turnout was down from the previous municipal election in 2019 that saw 315 of 1,652 registered voters cast ballots in Mitchell County— a 19.07 percent turnout. Just 151 of 1,790 registered voters turned out for the 2021 municipal election, representing an 8.44 percent turnout.
Local participation in the municipal election has waned since 2015— a year that saw 545 of 1,736 voters hit the polls for a 31.39 percent participation rate. Just 12.75 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the next municipal election in 2017.