Municipal election 2025: At least two governing board seats on ballot in all six OBX towns
- Corinne Saunders
- Oct 1
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 17
The Dare County Administration Building in Manteo is an early voting site for the 2025 municipal election. Early voting starts Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
By Corinne Saunders
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Each of the six towns in Dare County has at least two governing board seats on the ballot for the nonpartisan 2025 municipal election.
Voters residing within the town limits of Duck, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Manteo and Southern Shores are eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming election.
Residents of unincorporated Dare County, along with all residents of Currituck and Hyde counties—neither of which has municipalities—will not vote in this election.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. Thirteen early voting days start in mid-October, and public candidate forums begin next Monday, Oct. 6.
Early voting takes place Thursday and Friday, Oct. 16-17, each weekday (Mondays through Fridays) Oct. 20-31 and on Saturday, Nov. 1, according to the Dare County webpage for election information.
Early voting locations are the Dare County Administration Building, located at 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive in Manteo, and the Kill Devil Hills Town Hall, located at 102 Town Hall Drive in Kill Devil Hills.
Sample ballots for all six towns are posted on the Dare County website.
This election cycle includes a total of 20 local seats, 10 of which are uncontested races. Each ballot has space for write-in candidates.
Turnout
Turnout for municipal elections in North Carolina has been traditionally low, despite the direct impact municipal governments have on residents’ daily lives.
“Municipalities are local governments, which make decisions about development, policing, trash service, local taxation, and other issues that affect voters’ daily lives,” according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ website.
Since percentage data became available on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website in 2015, an average of fewer than a quarter of eligible Dare County voters have cast ballots in municipal elections.
Over these past five municipal election cycles, Dare’s highest turnout was 26% in 2019. The lowest was 19.64% in 2015.
Statewide, municipal voter turnout has been even lower, with a high of 16.82% in 2017 and a low of 13.66% in 2015.
Registration repair
Voters on the state’s 82,000-person “Registration Repair List,” meaning their registration is missing either a driver license or identification number or the last four digits of their social security number, can update their information online, in person or through the mail.
The State Board of Elections mailed letters to voters on the list in mid-August, and the full list of affected voters is available at www.ncsbe.gov/registrationrepair.
The list currently includes 90 Dare County voters, 159 Currituck County voters and 21 Hyde County voters.
“Voters who do not have this information in their record may need to cast a provisional ballot and provide this information the next time they vote,” according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.
The repair effort came about after the unsuccessful 2024 GOP candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court Jefferson Griffin repeatedly sought to invalidate over 65,000 votes, which he challenged after vote recounts determined he lost to Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs.
The repair project also would help settle pending federal litigation on the matter, Sam Hayes, State Board of Elections’ executive director, told NC Newsline for its July 17 article.
A settlement agreement was reached in the federal lawsuit, the State Board of Elections announced on Sept. 8.
Who’s running locally? Mayors:
Five of the six towns’ mayor seats are up for election, although two races are uncontested, and a third mayor will be selected from among the council members who are voted in.
The two directly contested mayoral races will take place in Kitty Hawk and Manteo.
Kitty Hawk Mayor Craig Garriss, elected as mayor in 2021 and a town council member since 2013, is not seeking another term. Gary Perry, a former mayor, and Charlotte Deloatch Walker, an incumbent town council member, each filed to run for mayor of Kitty Hawk.
Manteo Mayor Sherry Wickstrom, who was elected in 2023, resigned on July 28. Two incumbent town commissioners, Tod Clissold and Mayor Pro Tem Betty Govan Selby, each filed to run for mayor of Manteo.
Duck Mayor Don Kingston, elected as mayor since 2011 and a council member since 2009, is not seeking reelection. The Duck mayor will be selected from council members elected this year, with all five town council seats up for election.
Only incumbent Nags Head and Southern Shores mayors, Ben Cahoon and Elizabeth Morey, respectively, filed for those mayor’s races. No challengers filed against either.
Kill Devil Hills does not have a mayor’s race on the ballot this year.
Who’s running locally? Governing boards:
In Duck, six candidates filed for the five town council seats up for reelection.
Incumbent council members Bren Chasen, Kevin Lingard, Mayor Pro Tempore Monica Thibodeau and Sandy Whitman filed, as did challengers Marc Murray and Miriam Rollin.
In Kill Devil Hills, two of five commissioners’ seats are up for election. Both incumbents, Terry Gray and T. Dillon Heikens, are running unopposed.
In Kitty Hawk, in addition to the mayor’s seat, two town council seats are on the ballot. Incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Pruitt and political newcomer Peter Mantz are running unopposed.
In Manteo, the mayor’s seat plus three of seven commissioner seats are up for election.
Michael Basnight, Eddie Mann and Ruth Jane Stetson each filed for reelection, and no challengers filed.
In Nags Head, in addition to the mayor’s seat, two commissioners’ seats and one unexpired term of a commissioner’s seat are on the ballot.
Two incumbent commissioners, Mayor Pro Tem Michael “Mike” Siers and Commissioner Bob Sanders, filed for reelection, as did challenger Megan Vaughan.
Molly Harrison, C.P. (Buster) Nunemaker III and Keith Sawyer each filed to serve for the two-year unexpired term of former Commissioner Kevin Brinkley, who resigned last year when he moved outside town limits.
In Southern Shores, in addition to the mayor’s seat, one council seat is on the ballot. Paula F. Sherlock filed for reelection, and no one else filed.
To learn more about local municipal governments, visit the following websites for the:
Candidate forums
The League of Women Voters of Dare County will host forums for each of the four towns with contested races, starting next Monday. Each forum is scheduled from 7-8:30 p.m.
The forum for Duck candidates will take place Monday, Oct. 6, at the Paul F. Keller Meeting Room, located at 1200 Duck Road in Duck.
Tuesday, Oct. 7, is the Nags Head candidate forum in the Nags Head Board of Commissioners Room, located at 5401 S. Croatan Highway in Nags Head.
Wednesday, Oct. 8, is the Manteo candidate forum at Manteo Town Hall, located at 407 Budleigh Street in Manteo.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, is the Kitty Hawk candidate forum at Kitty Hawk Town Hall, located at 101 Veterans Drive in Kitty Hawk.
Voters can submit questions for candidates to lwvdareforums@gmail.com. Emailed questions should include voters’ names and towns and be sent in up to three days in advance of the forum. Audience members can also submit questions in person at the forums, according to the League of Women Voters of Dare County.
For more information about voting or voter registration, visit the Dare County Board of Elections’ website.
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This article was updated at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, after we learned that since candidate filing, a person who filed to run for town council in Kitty Hawk dropped out of the race.
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