Woodson could be new Salisbury mayor

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Salisbury could have a new mayor.
With 15 of 15 precincts reporting, Councilman Paul Woodson leads the field with 1,928 votes. Susan Kluttz, mayor the past 14 years, is second with 1,893 votes and current Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell is third with 1,853 votes.
Traditionally, the council selects the highest vote-getter as mayor.
Incumbents Brian Miller and William “Pete”?Kennedy round out the race for five seats with 1,821 and 1,570 votes respectively.
Challengers’ tallies are: Rip Kersey, 1,451; Ben Lynch, 1,355; Blake Jarman, 656; and?Dale Stephens, 438. Voters have cast 157 write-in votes.
All results are unofficial until certified by the Rowan County Board of Elections.
In other races:
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KANNAPOLIS — A newcomer is in and a longtime councilman is out in Kannapolis.
In unofficial results, challenger Ryan Dayvault led all candidates in the race for three Kannapolis City Council seats with 1,578 votes. Incumbents Roger Haas and Tom Kincaid kept their seats with 1,108 and 1,102 votes respectively.
Ken Geathers, who has served on the council since the city incorporated in 1984, was fourth with 1,005 votes.
Challengers Amos McClorey and Michael Mishkin rounded out the field with 527 and 373 votes respectively.
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In Landis, the race for mayor between Dennis Brown and James Furr is tied at 195 votes apiece. 
In the race for two seats on the town board, Roger Safrit and Tony Hilton topped the polls with 257 and 242 votes respectively.
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In China Grove, Lee Withers and Steve Stroud won the race for two seats on the town board. Withers had 145 votes and Stroud 143 votes.
Mayor Don Bringle, running unopposed, got 246 votes, with 18 voters writing in other choices.
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Barbara Mallett will be East Spencer’s new mayor, according to unofficial counts. She got 188 votes, compared to 47 for her opponent, Robert Smith. Current Mayor John Cowan chose not to run for re-election.
The town also will gain a new alderman, Curtis Cowan, who appears to be the top vote-getter with 145 votes.
Incumbents John Noble and Theodore Gladden have been re-elected with 144 and 131 votes, respectively.
Leaving the East Spencer Town Board of Aldermen is Carlton Ellis, with an unofficial vote count of 62.
Following are challengers Titus King Sr., with 59 votes, and John L. Rustin, with 56. There were 55 write-in votes cast – not enough to elect write-in candidate Marshall Gore Jr.
These totals don’t include 13 provisional ballots and 18 absentee ballots for East Spencer, which will be counted later by the Rowan County Board of Elections.
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Faith could have a new mayor. 
Current Mayor Pro Tem Todd Peeler received 105 votes to beat out Mayor Keith Deal, who received 101 votes. Traditionally, the top vote-getter in the Town Board race takes on the roles as mayor, while the second-highest vote-getter serves as the mayor pro tem. 
Incumbents Gary Garner and Bill Johnson were also re-elected with 93 and 92 votes, respectively. 
Newcomer Gay Sanderson will join the board for the first time. She received 53 votes. 
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Incumbents Bill Feather and Mary Ponds and newcomer Jim LaFevers grabbed the three seats up for election Tuesday in Granite Quarry.
Feather, the present mayor pro tem, led the election’s nine candidates with 164 votes, followed by Ponds, 160; and LaFevers, 124. They will join Brad Kluttz and Eloise Peeler, whose seats were not up for election this year.
LaFevers unseated incumbent Jake Fisher, who finished with 110 votes. LaFevers has been an alderman in the past.
The winners will be on the town board for the next four years.
The newly elected board will choose a mayor among themselves at its first meeting in December. Feather said he is interested in the mayor’s position, which Ponds has held for the past 12 years.
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In Spencer, Jim Gobbel topped all candidates for six seats with 265 votes, followed by Scott Benfield with 245, Reid Walters with 241, Kevin Jones with 235, Jeff Morris with 221, and David H. Smith with 199.
Mayor Jody Everhart won re-election as mayor without any registered opposition. He took 225 votes and residents cast 25 write-in votes.
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Incumbents ruled in the Cleveland Commissioners race.
John Bradford and Frankie Fleming-Adkins will reclaim their spots on the board.
Bradford received 29.72 percent,  63, of the votes, with Fleming-Adkins following close behind at 28.77 percent, 61 votes. 
Newcomer Richard Taylor almost made it on the board. He had 27.36 percent, 58, of the votes. 
Leonard West, who has never been on the board, but was running for the second time, got 13.21 percent, 28 votes. 
John Steele, who ran unopposed, will return for his second term as mayor.
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Incumbents appear to have swept Rockwell’s town elections.
All five members of the Town Board of Aldermen have been re-elected. Unofficial vote counts are as follows: Tim Draper, 157; Chuck Bowman, 153;  Eric Moore, 143; Timothy Justin Crews, 132; Charles Wingerson, 125.
Challenger Chris Stiller is the lowest vote-getter with a total of 93. Two write-in votes were cast.
Rockwell Mayor Beau Taylor, who ran unopposed, won re-election with 162 votes. There were 7 write-in votes cast.