Filing for the 2021 municipal elections ends at noon Friday.
And as of 2 p.m. Tuesday, only six of the 14 seats up for grabs have received interest.
At Monday’s Graham County Board of Elections meeting, director Teresa Garland summarized the paperwork filed so far, with the majority coming from the Town of Robbinsville. Mayor Steve Hooper and Alderman Debbie Beasley have both filed for re-election, while former board member Jacky Ayers has entered the race for alderman as well. Hooper signed up on the first day of filing – July 6 – while Beasley and Ayers each threw their hats in the race July 7.
The remaining two candidates – Diana Simon and Jim Hager – have both filed to appear on the Town of Lake Santeetlah’s ballot, with Simon registering for candidacy July 7 and Hager submitting the necessary paperwork Monday.
Keith Predmore then filed for a Lake Santeetlah council seat Tuesday morning.
No one from the Town of Fontana Dam had filed as of Monday, with that municipality’s council discussing the possibility of reducing the board’s size from five members to three.
Lake Santeetlah also has a five-person council, while the county seat – Robbinsville – only has three aldermen and a mayor.
Garland later revealed preliminary dates for one-stop (early) voting, with the window opening Thursday, Oct. 14, and closing Saturday, Oct. 30. A location has not been determined, but voting will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – save for the final day, when voting is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The 2021 general election will then be held Tuesday, Nov. 2. In addition to the candidate races, included on local ballots will be a vote on allowing alcohol sales within the Robbinsville town limits – which would effectively end Graham County’s status as the only remaining dry county in North Carolina, a distinction it has held since 1948 – and a referendum that would extend the gap between elections in Fontana Dam from two years to four.