Skeen leads city council voting; Trogdon, Burks move on in mayor's race

ASHEBORO — The Primary election for the Asheboro City Council and Asheboro Mayor races, triggered by the large number of candidates for each, has done its job, and so now the race for the four available council seats and the mayor's chair resumes in earnest ahead of the Nov. 4 Election Day.

Fourteen candidates entered the council race, and eight survived the primary cut. Four entered the mayor race, with two moving on for campaigning over the next few weeks.

Voter turnout was 13.78 percent, with 2,097 of a possible 15, 216 registered city voters casting ballots, about half of them in early voting and half on Election Day for the primary.

Joey Trogdon led the mayoral balloting with 924 votes for 44.75 percent of the vote, while Eddie Burks finished second with 784 votes for 37.97 percent. The remaining two candidates combined for  17.39 percent of the vote.

In the council race, Phil Skeen (1,119 votes, 14.81%), Phillip Cheek (917, 12.14%), Mary Joan Pugh (865, 11.45%) and incumbent Kelly Heath (766, 10.14%) were the only ones with at least 10 percent in a race in which voters could pick up to four candidates.

The other four primary survivors — Pamela Vuncannon (736, 9.74%), Dave Thomas (612, 8.10%), incumbent Bill McCaskill.(564, 7.47%) and Joel McClosky (431, 5.70%) — will need to gain some ground over the next few weeks to earn one of the four seats up for grabs. (Two of the four were open because Clark Bell and Mayor Pro-Tem Walker Moffitt chose not to run for re-election.)

You can view the complete results for all candidates in the chart accompanying this article.

In addition to the four available seats, a fifth will open up with the election of either Trogdon or Burks as mayor as both are current city council members and the mayoral winner will have to vacate his seat.

Early voting for the Nov. 4 election will begin on Oct. 16 and run through Nov. 1.

For a look at issues important to the candidates in the race, click here.