Latest election results from Clay County

Early voting counted for almost 55 percent of the total vote count in Tuesday’s Primary election. On election day, the turn out was light with only 1,501 persons voting giving a 37.9 % overall voter turnout for the county. There will be no runoff for county officials; however there might be a runoff for statewide offices- we will know and post later today.

Here are the unofficial results: In the Democrat Primary Joe Shook had 977 votes to Deby Jo Ferguson’s 459.  For the three person board of commissioners Dan McGlamery- 1026 votes; Charles L. Penland -901 votes and Herbert Cheeks-747 votes will be Democratic candidates in the fall. Wanda Anderson-461 votes, Tommy Hogsed-436 votes and Richard Bernhardt-120 are eliminated. For Clerk of Court: Melvin Cantrell with 824 votes or 56.4% of the votes will be running in the fall. Israel Rogers had 531 votes, and K Denise Hallauer Fox garnered 106 votes.

For Republicans:In the Sheriff’s race- Vic Davis-1007 votes beat out Kevin Jackson-105 votes and Jake Ehrhart -488 votes. Board of Commissioners: Tighe White-795, Dwight Penland-787 and Stephen Sellers-768 were the three high vote getters. Pat Margo was 4th with 728 votes; Shirlee Blankenship had 644 votes; Don Hunt-354; Bo Hager 340. The three highest vote getters will be candidates in the fall.

Republican candidate for Clerk-of-Court will be Tim Barrett-702 votes. Ricky Rogers had 384 votes and Gary Nichols had 565.

In the school board election the six highest candidates who will be facing off in November will be Jason Shook-1,627; Tony Ellis-1,433; Wanda Cotton-1,126; Darryl McClure-1,074; Terry Utt-900 and Chad Hodges-835. Others in the race included Jeff Long-712; Lamar Chastain-556; John Martin-350 and Angelo Caiazzo-191.

In the congressional race: Congressman Heath Shuler-990 votes beat out Aixa Wilson-338 in Clay County for the Democratic candidate. In the Republican race, Clay County voters went for Kenny West-717 votes; Dan Eichenbaum placed second with 600 votes; others include Jeff Miller-155; Gregory Newman-35; Ed Krause-28 and James Howard-27.

For NC Representative incumbent Roger West beat out his opponent, the other West by 1,150 votes to 356 as the Republican candidate.  He will be unopposed in the fall as there was no Democratic candidate for this office.

For NC Senate: Jim Davis carried Clay County 955 votes to Jimmy Goodman-383 vote; the winner of the district will face Democratic Senator John Snow who was unopposed in the Primary.

In the U.S. Senate race : Senator Richard Burr won 68.48 % of the vote with 956 votes in Clay County’s Republican Primary.

In the Democratic race Elaine Marshall took 319 of Clay County’s votes. Her nearest competitor was Susan Harris-212 votes about 20 %. However it appears Cal Cunningham was one of the high vote getters in the state, so the race could be between him and Marshall.