Western Rockingham election results

New people will occupy seats on the town boards of both Madison and Stoneville following Tuesday’s election.
The race for Stoneville’s five council seats resulted in the return of a former board member, the victory of a write-in candidate and a loss for an 18-year council veteran.
Former Stoneville council member Ricky Craddock earned the highest number of unofficial votes in Tuesday’s election with 207, making him the board’s mayor pro tem. The second highest total went to Jerry Smith, who registered an official write-in campaign with the Rockingham County Board of Elections on Oct. 26. Smith garnered 164 of 169 town council race write-in votes.
This was the second time in three years that a write-in candidate won a council seat in Stoneville. Current Town Administrator Kevin Baughn won a write-in campaign during a special runoff from the 2005 election held in May 2006.
Stoneville’s remaining three council seats appear to be going to incumbent board members Jodi Lester (153), Jerry Odell (138) and Eugene DeMoss (135).
The only other incumbent in this year’s race, James “Gen” Scales, finished sixth with 127 votes. RCBOE Deputy Director Tina Cardwell said municipal non-partisan plurality elections are not normally eligible for runoffs, but Scales could call for a recount if the difference is within 12 votes.
“Keep in mind that provisional ballots still have to be counted,” Cardwell said. “Depending on who those votes go to will determine if Gen is still eligible to call for a recount or not.”
The Board of Elections meets Thursday morning to count provisional ballots and those results will be available Thursday afternoon.
Stoneville council challengers Johnny Farmer and Glynda Shelton finished with 121 votes and 108 votes, respectively.
Stoneville Mayor Rex Tuggle won his ninth term Tuesday with 176 unofficial votes. Challenger Robert Stowe gave a good account with 119 votes. There were 3 write-in votes.
In Madison, former Madison police officer D.R. “Bubba” Stewart will join his former chief, Jerry Welch, on the town’s board of aldermen next month. Unofficial results for the aldermen race gives incumbent Janice Tate the highest total with 181 votes, followed by incumbent Art Gwaltney with 174. Stewart, who will assume Monte McIntosh’s vacated seat, won the post with 158 votes.
Challengers Justin Terrell and Charles Mann lost their first election bids with 97 and 74, respectively. There were 3 write-in votes.
Madison Mayor Micky Silvers won his second term Tuesday, topping a challenge from Christopher Phillips 180 votes to 78. Two people cast write-in votes for mayor.
The contested mayoral and board races in Stoneville and Madison brought steady voter turnout throughout the day Tuesday.
Stoneville Councilman Odell joined other candidates outside the rear entrance to the Vera Holland Building – the voting site for Matrimony Precinct – from the opening of the polls at 6:30 a.m. until closing at 7:30 p.m. Odell said he believed the turnout for this election was better than several of his previous nine turns as a candidate.
“It’s been steady all day,” Odell said Tuesday afternoon. “There’s usually a few periods when there is a 20- or 30-minute down time without a lot of activity. But that hasn’t been the case today.”
In Madison, the story was very similar.
“Today has been as steady as any day I can remember for a non-presidential year,” said Christy Fox, Madison’s chief precinct judge. “Having multiple candidates for each position always helps increase voter interest.”
By 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Stoneville precinct led the numbers with more than 200 votes cast. In fact, council candidate Craddock cast vote number 201.
“I had to work this morning, so I was a little late getting here,” said Craddock. “It’s good to see this many folks taking part in the election process.”
The Madison totals were just slightly behind Stoneville, at about 170 by 4 p.m. Mayodan, where there were no contested races was around 85 votes.
In Mayodan, Dwight Lake received 109 of 140 mayoral votes, with 31 write-in votes.
Incumbent councilman Tim Simpson received 130 votes and fellow incumbent Andrew “Buddy” Martin had 122. There were 11 write-in votes cast.