Although there’s nearly a month left in the current calendar year, the jockeying has already begun for next year’s elections, which will feature some prominent local offices, including sheriff, district attorney, and two of the five seats on the county’s board of commissioners.
The starting shot for these upcoming races will officially go off at 12:00 noon on Monday, December 6 when the state commences a 12-day registration period for prospective candidates. This period, which ends at 12:00 noon on Friday, December 17, applies to any candidate who plans to stand in next year’s primaries, which are slated to take place on March 8 for all partisan offices that will appear on the ballot in next fall’s general election.
This month’s filing period doesn’t apply to candidates for the nonpartisan office of soil and water conservation district supervisor. Contenders for this position will be able to register next summer between June 13 and July 1, 2022.
The state board of elections has also listed a filing period next summer for the Alamance-Burlington school board, whose candidate have traditionally registered at the same time as their counterparts for other local offices. According to the state board’s calendar, school board hopefuls will have to file their paperwork between July 1 and July 15, 2022. The county board of elections, on the other hand, has posted a filing schedule which directs school board contenders to register with most other candidates between December 6 and December 17.
According to the state board of elections, office seekers for all federal and statewide races will have to file their notices of candidacy at the Exposition Center on the state fair grounds in Raleigh. Also filing in Raleigh will be contenders for the office of Alamance County’s district attorney and a district court judgeship that’s currently held by Bradley Reid Allen, Sr.
Meanwhile, candidates for the state house, the state senate, and all countywide offices can attend to these same formalities at their local elections office – which for candidates in Alamance County is located at the corner of Maple and Pine streets in Graham.
According to Alamance County’s board of elections, next year’s primaries will feature three countywide races for the office of sheriff, clerk of superior court, and the county’s board of commissioners, which will have two of its five seats up for grabs in next fall’s general election.
One candidate who has already declared his intent to pursue one of available seats on the county’s governing board is local attorney Craig Turner, who announced his candidacy in The Alamance News on November 11.
Turner currently serves on the board of commissioners, where he holds a seat that previously belonged to former commissioner and current state senator Amy Scott Galey.
After Galey’s elevation to the General Assembly in January, the local Republican Party tapped Turner to fill out her unexpired term on the board of commissioners, which is scheduled to run out after the general election next fall.
