Only two candidates qualified before the deadline and participated in the June municipal election in Braxton. Incumbents Mayor Mable Everett and Alderwoman Georgia Smith were the only candidates to qualify leaving four positions on the Board of Aldermen available.
According to the Secretary of State’s Municipal Election Handbook, the governing authorities must enter an order on the official minutes requiring an election to be held in the municipality to fill the vacancy and fixing a date upon which such election will be held.
Mayor Mable Everett and the staff at City Hall explained the process moving forward. The board, consisting of Everett and Smith, met following the expiration of the term to schedule a special election for August 2017 with the qualifying period in July. Again, no candidates came forward during the qualification period for the special election, leaving the city to face the same problem.
The decision then fell to Mayor Everett and Alderwoman Smith to appoint members to the Braxton Board of Aldermen.
Jessica Allen, Patricia Henderson, Jerry Wayne Everett, and Kathryn McMillan had previously held the vacant aldermen positions.
Everett and Smith moved forward with the appointing process, and Braxton’s new Board of Aldermen now consists of Georgia Smith, Jeannie Rice, Vance Smith, T.M. Broome, and Dan Pardue. The new aldermen, excluding Georgia Smith, were sworn into office on August 7, and the town held their first official meeting in September.
The appointed board members will serve a full four year term which expires in June of 2021.
