Municipal elections in Western North Carolina will be held in some jurisdictions on Tuesday, Nov. 2, but in-person early voting will take place beginning Thursday, Oct. 14. 

Four candidates will compete for two open spaces on the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen in municipal elections this November. 

The tone of this year’s Franklin Town Council election is much different than it was four years ago, making for a quieter and more cooperative campaign season for the community. 

A scant three months ago, when candidates filed for the upcoming municipal elections, the Haywood County town of Canton was facing the usual set of local issues not much different from any other small-town Western North Carolina government. 

This November, Sylva voters will have their pick of four candidates to fill two seats up for election on the town board. Incumbents Mary Gelbaugh and Barbara Hamilton will face challengers Natalie Newman and Carrie McBane to earn the job of shepherding Jackson’s county seat through the next four years. 

While there aren’t any state or federal elections being held this year, there are a number of municipal governing board elections that will draw the attention of voters in November – especially across Western North Carolina — and now that the filing period has closed, the fields are set. 

For the second time in three election cycles, a coin flip decided the outcome of a Sylva town board race. 

Unofficial tallies show a total of four uncounted ballots at play in the Sylva town elections going into the final vote count, which will begin at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 15, at the Jackson County Board of Elections Office on Skyland Drive.

Although the race between two incumbent alderman for the Maggie Valley mayor’s gavel was an important one, the bigger story on Election Day was the performance of Tammy Wight. 

On Election Day, Waynesville voters could have chosen to send almost every single incumbent back to their seats, but when the new board is sworn in on Dec. 10, only two of the five will return to their previous positions.