Ben Schachtman: Alright, Nikolai, you are our rural Cape Fear reporter — how's it going?
Nikolai Mather: I'm pretty good! I'd say election night was pretty good too.
BS: So give us the highlights of election night. How did the greater Cape Fear do?
NM: Pretty well! Voter turnout hovered around 20% for the area, with the highest rate of turnout - 24% - in Pender County. Most of the candidates ran uncontested, but there were still a couple upsets on Tuesday. It seems like town council elections were the most prone to shake-ups – I saw several longtime incumbents throughout Cape Fear get voted out.
BS: Where all did you see this?
NM: Whiteville was one of them - they kept two out of three incumbents, but voted in a political newcomer named Josh Harris. He was actually the top vote getter of the night - he polled at 35%. Surf City and Holden Beach were also big ones. Both of those towns had three incumbents going up for re-election. But both towns only voted in one incumbent apiece. I actually went to election forums in Surf City and Holden Beach – the all ran on platforms of change, like improving the environment or streamlining the local political processes. It seems like it's served them well.
I think the craziest upset was Holly Ridge town council. There were three seats open this year. Three incumbents ran for re-election. And not only did they lose, but all three of them polled in the single digits. It was shocking.
BS: You've been covering a lot of Holly Ridge council meetings lately. Why do you think these incumbents polled so low?
NM: It's hard to say. I mean, the first thing I think of is the Holly Plaza mold crisis, right? All three incumbents have been struggling along with the rest of the town council to figure out how to get these tenants into safe housing. I could definitely see a situation where voters were dissatisfied with their responses and wanted some change. Especially the voters at Holly Plaza – they all showed up to the candidate forum last month, and told me on Tuesday that they were organizing rides to the polls together.
But there's also a lot of other factors at play here. There's a much bigger candidate pool this year – 9 candidates, compared to the 5 that ran in 2019. This year's turnout was also extraordinary. As of Wednesday morning, voters cast one thousand seven hundred and ninety six votes in the race for Holly Ridge town council. I don't know how many voters that translates to, but it dwarfs 2019's numbers. That year, voters cast only 415 votes for the three town council seats.
BS: It sounds like town council elections were pretty intense. But how about the mayoral races? How did they fare?
NM: The mayor's races were much more of a mixed bag. I think one of the strongest showings was out in Surf City – Teresa Batts was the incumbent, and she beat Marc Caldwell with two-thirds of the vote. Holden Beach seems a lot closer. Alan Holden has been there for years, but his challenger Mike Chelmly came pretty close. That was a 34 vote split. The closest race in the region was definitely Southport. We're still waiting for the official results, but as of Wednesday night, it looks like the incumbent has just three more votes than his challenger. That's Joe Pat Hatem versus Rich Alt.
BS: Three votes! That's crazy. Okay, any other major takeaways?
Well, we're operating on unofficial results right now. Most places won't finish counting mail-in ballots until sometime next week – I think Nov. 17th for Southport, for those interested in the mayoral race. But when we get the official results, y'all will be the first to know.
BS: Alright, Nikolai, thanks so much for your reporting.
NM: Yeah! Thank you.
