By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
ROCKWELL — Incumbents appear to have swept the town of Rockwell in Monday’s elections.
All five members of the Rockwell Board of Aldermen have been re-elected, along with Mayor Beau Taylor.
Unofficial vote counts for winning aldermen are as follows: Tim Draper, 162 (19.33 percent); Chuck Bowman, 158 (18.85 percent); Eric Moore, 148 (17.66 percent); Timothy Justin Crews, 138 (16.47 percent); Charles Wingerson, 130 (15.51 percent).
“I’m just ecstatic that the people in Rockwell believe in me that much, to give me the honor of being the highest vote-getter,” Draper said. “We have a lot of challenges ahead of us in the next term, but we’ll hit them head-on and do the best we can for the town.”
Draper, 44, said he thinks the current board works well together and will continue to do so.
The sole challenger, Chris Stiller, is the lowest vote-getter with an unofficial count of 100 (11.93 percent). In total, 838 votes were cast.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” Stiller said. “It’s hard to beat incumbents. It’s as simple as that.”
Stiller, 60, said he thinks higher voter turnout may have helped his campaign. He said it’s a “possibility” that he’ll run again, and in the meantime, he’s thanking those who supported him.
Wingerson, 72, said he’s “very happy” to be re-elected and wants to thank those who voted for him. He has held a seat on the board for a total of 14 years.
“I think the voters agreed that we have done some good things over the past couple terms and had the confidence in us to re-elect us,” Wingerson said. “But we did have a good challenger.”
Taylor, who ran unopposed for Rockwell mayor, won re-election with 167 votes (95.98 percent) out of 174 cast. He has been mayor for the past eight years.
“I appreciate that the citizens of the town, even though I was running unopposed, came out and voted for me,” Taylor said.
Taylor, 69, said he’s “very pleased” that the town will have the same board for another term, even though the aldermen also would have worked well with Stiller.
Two write-in votes were cast for aldermen and seven were cast for mayor.
Bowman, Moore and Crews were unavailable for comment Monday night.
Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.
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