Smyth voters fill 3 supervisors' seats, 4 school board seats

Voters in three Smyth County magisterial districts have made their choices from among the candidates seeking those seats on the board of supervisors. In four districts, citizens went to the polls to choose leadership for the school board.
Based on unofficial results posted to the State Board of Elections Web site Tuesday night, Chilhowie District voters returned the only incumbent seeking his seat on the board of supervisors. Wade Blevins Jr. defeated challenger Harvey L. Davenport, 655 to 526 votes.
A three-way race in the Saltville District included Ellen Hutton Branson, Roscoe D. “Mike” Call, and Jimmy Wayne Frye. The SBE’s unofficial results gave the nod to Call with 331 votes, or 38.13 percent. Branson garnered 289 votes, while Jimmy Wayne Frye received 246. Mike Roberts now holds the Saltville seat. He chose not to seek reelection.
Marvin Perry also opted not to seek reelection in the Royal Oak District, which was being sought by Regina H. Davidson and Alvin E. Jones. The SBE’s unofficial numbers put Davidson in the lead with 433 votes to Jones’ 301 ballots.
For the school board’s four open seats, the SBE unofficial tally showed that Saltville District voters handily returned incumbent Jerry Catron to his seat giving him more than 70 percent of the votes cast. He was challenged by Kimberly Clark.
In the Atkins District, the early and unofficial results gave the lead to Susan B. Williams with 742 votes to Martha L. Larmer’s 592 total.
In the Chilhowie District, Dick Ryan was running unopposed for outgoing member Charlie Doane’s seat. Susan Sneed was unopposed in her bid to return to the board as the Royal Oak District representative.
Smyth County voters could also opt to give votes of confidence to Del. Bill Carrico and Del. Joseph Johnson, who were both unopposed in their efforts to return to the state legislature’s House of Delegates.
Local voters followed their historic trend of supporting Republican candidates for statewide office giving their backing to Bob McDonnell for governor, Bill Bolling for lieutenant governor and Ken Cuccinelli for attorney general.
Please see Saturday’s edition of the Smyth County News & Messenger for an update of local election results.