DOBSON — This was not an election year in Mount Airy and Surry County, but 2021 will not not escape politics altogether, with the candidates’ filing period to open early next month for various elections in 2022.
It begins on Dec. 6 at noon and ends on Dec. 17 at the same time at the Surry County Board of Elections office in Dobson.
That will set the stage for a possible primary in March leading to the general election in November 2022.
Next year has extra significance in Mount Airy from a political standpoint. Municipal balloting in 2022 will be the first held in an even-numbered year after state legislative action approving a locally initiated request to shift city elections from odd-numbered ones.
That move added an extra 12 months to the terms of office holders elected to four-year terms in 2017, who otherwise would have faced voters in 2021.
At stake in the upcoming municipal election are the seats now held by Mayor Ron Niland and three members of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.
These include North Ward Commissioner Jon Cawley, South Ward Commissioner Steve Yokeley and Joe Zakescik, the city’s at-large board member. Zalescik recently was appointed to fill an unexpired term for that position, last subject to an election in 2019.
State law prescribes that a person appointed to a board vacancy will serve until the next municipal election, in this case 2022, when he or she can seek a full four-year term.
Early interest shown
Zalescik has said he intends to file to...
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