Senate bill would change how Watauga commissioners are elected

A bill in the state Senate would change the way Watauga County voters choose their county commissioners, a move that could shift the balance of local power.

Right now Democrats have a 3-2 advantage on the board. But a look at the results from the 2022 election for three of those seats illustrate how things could change under Senate Bill 759.

All of the races were extraordinarily close, with just around one percentage point separating the winners from the losers.

And all shared the same pattern. A heavy percentage of Democrats from the core of Boone voters, while surrounding county voters leaned heavily Republican. Republicans won two of the three seats.

Democrat Larry Turnbow prevailed in only four of 20 precincts, including the Plemmons Student Union location on the campus of Appalachian State University. But it was enough to propel him to victory. 

Wake Forest University professor of politics and international affairs John Dinan notes that earlier this year the Republican-led legislature made a similar change in Wake County. Previously, Wake County voters could cast a ballot in every commissioners’ race.

“The move from county-wide to district, in those kinds of cases has real implications in that sense, and ends up concentrating the votes of one party in a central area of a district and allowing for other voters on the periphery of the district to go with another party," he says.

Republicans and Democrats in Watauga have long debated how much weight App State student voters should have in local elections.