The victors of this year’s party primaries weren’t the only ones who had reason to cheer when the local election office posted the vote counts from Tuesday.
The occasion was equally poignant for Shannon Long, an independent contender for Alamance County’s sheriff who appears to have met the statutory threshold to appear on the ballot in this fall’s general election.
Under state law, an unaffiliated candidate for a countywide office must collect the signatures of at least 4 percent of that county’s registered voters by the date of the primary in order to earn the right to compete in a general election.
Long, a one-time sheriff’s deputy in Orange County, began to circulate his own petition to get on the ballot well over a month before January 1 – when the local election office released the voter registration numbers that set the baseline for his 4-percent quota.
According to the county’s election director Dawn Hurdle, Long needed to obtain the signatures of at least 4,741 voters who live in Alamance County based on the registration figures that her office posted in January.
“As of yesterday,” she added in an interview Wednesday, “he has 5,011 names that qualified.”
Hurdle added that Kevin Harrison, the chairman of Alamance County’s board of elections, was still reviewing these signatures after the polls closed on Tuesday. She figured he’ll complete the task before he and his fellow board members convene on Friday to certify the results of the primaries.
Hurdle noted that Harrison’s review of the signatures is largely just a formality – one that she said hasn’t prevented Long from attending to other prerequisites of running for office.
“Mr. Long actually came in on the 26th [of February] and did some of his paperwork,” she recalled. “We will send the paperwork to Raleigh, and he will officially be on the ballot this November.”
Barring any unexpected developments, Long will go on to face the county’s Republican sheriff Terry Johnson in this year’s general election.
For the first time in his 24-year tenure, Johnson had to compete for the right to be the GOP’s nominee due to opposition in Tuesday’s primary from political newcomers Billy Clayton and Dana Byrd Pasour.
By the time the preliminary totals from Tuesday hit the web, Johnson had secured his party’s backing with 57.18 percent of the vote. Clayton, who had once served as the second in command at the N.C. Highway Patrol, wound up in the number two slot with 42.17 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, Pasour, who has no professional experience in law enforcement, finished at 0.65 percent.
With no Democratic contender for sheriff this year, the contest in November’s general election will come down to a duel between Johnson and Long, provided that the state board of elections accepts the independent contender’s petition.
