County filing period ends Friday
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on July 18, 2007 1:45 PM
Anybody interested in running for a seat in one of Wayne County's 11 municipal and sanitary district elections needs to hurry.
The filing deadline is less than 48 hours away.
At noon on Friday the county Board of Elections office will close the candidate books for the Nov. 6 election. After that, anyone wanting to be elected mayor of Goldsboro or to the Seven Springs town council will have to wage a write-in campaign.
Of course in Eureka, it's looking once again like that will be the only way anyone is elected -- not that it's a problem, county Board of Elections Director Gary Sims said. Poll workers will simply read the names on the ballots and tabulate them by hand like they do for almost every election in the small town.
Currently, the most contested municipal election is looking to be Mount Olive, where every race but District 3 and the mayor's seat features challengers.
There also could be a new mayor in Fremont in a few months, but right now only incumbents are running for its town council.
Goldsboro, though, is likely to have the busiest fall election season with a primary now necessary for the mayoral race. Furthermore, both Districts 1 and 2 already have two candidates. According to city statutes, if any race features three or more candidates, a primary must be held and the top two sent on to November.
This year the primary will be Oct. 9.
"All precincts for Goldsboro will be open. We will be having a full primary in October," Sims said.
He explained that it's not unusual for at least one Goldsboro race to need a primary. In fact, he continued, filing across the county this year has so far been about average.
"Right now it's looking fairly consistent, though we do still expect a few more to come trailing in," he said. "It's unpredictable, but at the rate we're going right now, I don't expect a huge turnout Friday."
But if there is anybody wishing to file, they better make sure they're at the county Board of Elections office on William Street by noon.
"We have an atomic clock in the office and if (by noon) we don't have you there, in the process of becoming a candidate, we cannot accept you as a candidate," Sims said.