Orange County voters elected most local candidates in May. Here are the winners.
Orange County voters elected a number of state and federal candidates Tuesday, but most local offices were filled in the May 17 primary.
The heavily Democratic county rarely fields candidates from other parties for local offices. For years, elected officials and voters have raised the possibility of changing the Orange County Board of Commissioners district election system.
District 1 has three seats representing Chapel Hill and Carrboro, while District 2 has two seats representing the rest of the county. Voters who live in each district vote in their district’s primary, but voters across the county fill the seat in November.
There also are two at-large seats on the board, filled by voters countywide.
Unopposed Orange County candidates re-elected Tuesday were:
▪ Sheriff Charles Blackwood
▪ Register of Deeds Mark Chilton
▪ Superior Court Judge Alyson Grine
▪ Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour
▪ District Court Judge C. Todd Roper
▪ Orange County Commissioners Sally Greene (at large), Jamezetta Bedford (District 1) and Earl McKee (District 2)
▪ Orange County Clerk of Superior Court Mark Kleinschmidt
▪ Orange Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor W. Chris Hogan
Unopposed candidates who won their first term in office were:
▪ Orange-Chatham District Attorney — Jeff Nieman, a current assistant district attorney
▪ Orange County Commissioner Anna Richards, who was appointed last year to her District 1 seat
▪ Orange Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor — Richal Vanhook
▪ N.C. House District 56 Rep. Allen Buansi, who previously served on Chapel Hill Town Council
Orange County voters also elected four new Orange County Schools board members in May: incumbents Sarah Smylie and Will Atherton, and newcomers Anne Purcell and André Richmond.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 8:00 PM.
