Voters oust sheriff, prosecutor; return school board incumbents; keep two supervisors, defeat two others

Dickenson County voters have ousted their incumbent sheriff and commonwealth attorney, returned incumbents to the school board and delivered mixed results in county board of supervisors races.

With just more than 60 percent of the vote, Democrat Jeremy Fleming prevailed in his challenge for sheriff against Republican Scott Stanley, 3,481 to 2,291.

Voters returned former Dickenson County prosecutor Josh Newberry to that post, unseating current Commonwealth Attorney Seth Baker. Newberry, a Republican, took almost 55 percent of the vote, 3,076 to 2,553, over the incumbent Democrat.

In the race for school board, where three incumbents bowed out of another term, incumbents Lurton Lyle in the Clintwood District and Rick Mullins in the Willis District fought off challenges to prevail in their races. Lyle handily defeated challenger Greer Mullins, 829 to 481, and Mullins bested Glenda O'Quinn, 697 to 539.

In a three-way race in the Sandlick District, Jamie Hackney took a little more than 50 percent of the vote (529) over opponents Hayes O'Quin (407) and David Owens (94).

In another three-way campaign, in the Ervinton District, former schools superintendent Damon Rasnick edged out Kathy Harrison, 487 to 458, with David Ratliff trailing with 51 votes.
Jason Hicks ran unopposed in the Kenady District, garnering 781 with 18 write-ins.

In the county supervisors races, two districts returned incumbents and two ousted them.

Republican incumbent Ron Peters trounced Democrat Charles Hay in the Sandlick District, taking more than 68 percent of the vote (690 to 302).
In a closer race, Republican incumbent Shelbie Willis in the Kenady District bested challenger Selena Culbertson, a Democrat, 553 to 437.

Republican Josh Evans took the Willis District seat from incumbent Democrat Jason Compton, 736 to 543, while Republican Peggy Kiser claimed the Ervinton District over Democrat David Yates, 642 to 360.

Newcomer Rhonda Sluss, a Republican, will represent the Clintwood District on the board, taking that race over Democrat Donnie Rife, 721 to 622.

In the town of Clinchco special election to fill a council seat, Ruby F. Coleman was unopposed. Coleman got 40 votes and there were 18 write-ins.

Independent incumbent Treasurer Angela Rakes ran unopposed and secured 4,728 votes. Mike Yates, the Republican Commissioner of Revenue, also faced no challenge. Yates garnered 4,580 votes.

Dickenson County voters favored hometown girl Starla Kiser in the District 4 House of Delegates race but those 2,961 votes would not be enough to carry the Democrat past Republican William Wampler III of Abingdon district-wide. Wampler took almost 63 percent of the vote, 14,382 to Kiser's 8,458.

Meantime, Republican incumbent Sen. Ben Chafin took more than 63 percent of the vote in the Senate District 38 race against independent challenger George McCall III, 30,198 to 16,815.

Two ran for two seats on the Soil and Water Conservation board. Travis C. Mullins of Long Ridge secured 3,231 votes and Johnnie C. Stanley of Clintwood took 2,577.

The Dickenson County Registrar's Office faced challenges all night, as the state Department of Elections website went down right as the local office was loading its first set of returns, Deputy Registrar Kayla Deel. "It went down hill from there," Deel said, noting that what the state's website was showing as final returns with all precincts reporting actually was not the case.

Dickenson County was setting voting records even before Election Day.

Out of the county's 10,111 registered voters across five districts, a record total of 1,017 absentee ballots, roughly 10 percent, already had been cast by Monday, Deel said.

The last day to vote by absentee ballot passed on Saturday and the Dickenson County Registrar's Office witnessed a record 70 people arriving in person to vote. Fifty was the most the registrar could ever recall voting on that last day, Deel said.

Deel said 613 voters had come into their office to vote in person with 404 having sent their ballots in by mail. As of Monday, another 50 ballots were still out, she said.

Election results can be found at the Virginia Department of Elections website, www.elections.virginia.gov.