Surprise votes in Tarboro, Princeville, Speed

Strange things can happen in so-called off-year elections, but it would be hard to find a precedent to what happened in Edgecombe County Tuesday.

Six challengers — three for the Tarboro Town Council; three for the Princeville Town Board — rousted six incumbents to take seats in a major sea change for both towns. On their face, the wins signal a mandate for change, but the campaigns before Tuesday did little to suggest such a sweeping statement. Instead, the challengers simply ran smart races.

In the process, Tarboro elected two women to its board — the first to serve on that body in the town’s history. Voter turnout in Tarboro and Princeville was low — about 25 percent. But that doubled the percentage in Nash County, and turnout across the country was generally low in this nonpresidential election year.

Credit the challengers for their efforts to get folks to the polls, as well as encourage change in the status quo. Incumbents generally enjoy the benefit of name recognition and better access to the public’s eyes and ears. After all, their actions are reported in the media on a regular basis. But it was clear that the newcomers touched a chord with voters in both towns.

A different story unfolded not so far away. Only one candidate — Shirley Perry Brownell — filed to run for one of four open seats on the Speed Board of Commissioners. No one filed to run for mayor. So as Tarboro and Princeville challengers did the unthinkable, Speed residents accepted the inevitable.

Brownell will serve on the board. Someone among the 13 write-in votes presumably will be mayor, but results won’t be released until later this week. Talk about suspense.

In short, Tuesday captured the good, the bad and the ugly of off-year elections. Best of luck to the newly elected leaders. May they serve their communities well.