The election drew 4,420 out of 27,750 registered voters, or a 15.93 percent turnout —better than Haywood and Macon, at 14.4 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively, but less than Swain County, with 18.4 percent. Jackson County also came in over the statewide turnout, which was 14.3 percent. 

• Charles Elders, a three-term Jackson County commissioner, handily beat challenger Jarrett Crowe in a contest to represent the Republicans on the November ballot in search of a fourth term. Elders earned 78.2 percent of the vote to Crowe’s 21.8 percent. Elders, 74, lives in the Barkers Creek area and sits as chairman of the Mountain Projects board, in addition to several other board appointments. In November he’ll face a challenge from Democrat Gayle Woody. 

• Clerk of Court Ann D. Melton easily won the right to keep her seat for another four years, taking 76.3 percent of the vote to opponent Kim Coggins Poteet’s 23.7 percent. Melton has been the clerk of court for 13 years and has worked in the clerk’s office for 33 years. Poteet and Melton are both Democrats, with no Republicans filing for the seat. Melton will run unopposed in November. 

• Republican voters overwhelmingly selected Doug Farmer, a detective in the Sylva Police Department, to face incumbent Sheriff Chip Hall, a Democrat, in November. Farmer garnered 68.7 percent of the vote to opponent Brent McMahan’s 31.3 percent. Hall and Farmer previously faced each other in the May 2014 primary election, when Farmer ran as a Democrat and Hall was seeking his first term as sheriff. 

• Ken Henke, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Education, was defeated by challenger Abigail Blakely Clayton, who took 55.7 percent of the vote to Henke’s 44 percent in the race to represent District Two. The other two incumbents up for re-election — Ali Laird-Large and Margaret M. McRae — held their seats, with Laird-Large defeating challenger Brian E. McClure with 54.4 percent of the vote and McRae holding 64.9 percent of the vote against challenger James Stewart-Payne. Board of Education seats are non-partisan, with the Primary Election deciding the outcome. 

• In the race to represent District 11 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 48.6 percent of Jackson County Democrats selected Phillip Price from a field of three candidates vying to face incumbent Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, in November. Statewide, 40.6 percent of Democrats voted for Price. Of the county’s Republican voters, 88.4 percent voted for Meadows and 11.6 percent selected challenger Chuck Archerd.