Government

    A warm, sunny election day brought more voters than anticipated to the polls yesterday. According to Barbara Gunter, total voter turnout across the county was 11.7 percent by 11:35 a.m, but some precincts had reached 14 percent and the Knights of Columbus precinct, in Forest, was the morning turnout champion with 18 percent of its registered voters having cast ballots before noon.

    Gunter, in a phone interview before noon, said turnout was higher than expected at that point.

    This year's state and local election, held on a sunny day with mild temperatures, brought out a larger than anticipated percentage of voters. Preliminary figures show that 21 percent of registered voters in Bedford County cast ballots yesterday.

    Voters reelected Sheriff Mike Brown by a margin of 76 percent with 10,225 voters casting ballots to reelect him. Charles Stebbins received 24 percent of the vote with 3,160 votes cast in his favor.

    Pam Bowden, a local real estate paralegal, would like to be Bedford County’s next commissioner of the revenue.
    Bowden is lifelong Bedford County native. She’s a Liberty High School graduate and a 2003 Averett University graduate, graduating suma cum laude with a degree in business administration.
    There was quite a gap between her high school and college years.
    “I went back when my kids went to college,” she said.

    District 1 features the only contested school board race, with W. P. Johnson seeking to unseat one-term incumbent Richard Downey.
    Downey feels retaining an experienced school board member is important as two current school board members will not seek reelection to the board. He said a new school board member has a steep learning curve. A new member on the school board will spend his first year in office learning how everything works.