Tod Clissold, Charlotte Deloatch Walker are projected new Manteo, Kitty Hawk mayors, plus full unofficial 2025 OBX municipal election results
- Corinne Saunders
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Unofficial results show Tod Clissold (left) as the new mayor of Manteo, and Charlotte Deloatch Walker (right) as the new mayor of Kitty Hawk, following the Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, municipal election. Results show that Walker won by two votes, which means a recount could potentially change the outcome of that race. (Photos courtesy Clissold and Walker, respectively)
By Corinne Saunders
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Voters in the towns of Kitty Hawk and Manteo have selected new mayors, with the Kitty Hawk mayoral race decided by two votes, according to unofficial North Carolina State Board of Elections results published Tuesday night.
Charlotte Deloatch Walker, an incumbent town council member, is projected to be the next Kitty Hawk mayor after receiving 366 votes, or 49.80% of the vote, while Gary Perry, a former mayor, received 364 votes, or 49.52% of the vote. Five ballots, or 0.68% of the vote, were cast with write-in candidates.
Perry could request a recount, as results fall within the threshold of 1% of total votes cast required by state statute to request a recount.
Tod Clissold, a current commissioner, is projected to become the next mayor of Manteo after receiving 259 votes, which was 59.54% of the vote. Betty Govan Selby, current mayor pro tem, received 174 votes, or 40% of the vote. Two ballots, or 0.46% of the vote, were cast with write-in candidates.
Five of the six Dare County towns’ mayor seats were up for election this municipal election cycle, although two races were uncontested, and a third mayor will be selected from among the newly elected council members.
Ben Cahoon and Elizabeth Morey, the incumbent Nags Head and Southern Shores mayors, respectively, ran unchallenged and won their reelections.
In Nags Head, Cahoon received 854 votes, or 97.6% of the vote. There were 21 ballots cast with write-in candidates, or 2.4% of the vote.
In Southern Shores, Morey received 401 votes, or 94.35% of the vote. There were 24 ballots cast with write-in candidates, or 5.65% of the vote.
The Duck mayor will be selected from among newly elected council members. All five town council seats were on the ballot.
Kill Devil Hills did not have a mayor’s race this year.
This election cycle included a total of 20 seats, 10 of which were uncontested races. Each ballot had space for write-in candidates.
Voters residing within the town limits of Duck, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Manteo and Southern Shores were eligible to cast ballots in this election.
The Dare County Board of Elections will certify the 2025 election results at its Friday, Nov. 14 canvass meeting at 11 a.m. in the Board of Commissioners Meeting Room in the Dare County Administration building in Manteo.
Below are the full unofficial election results as of publication time, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Duck
In the Town of Duck, six candidates filed for five open town council seats. The top five vote-getters elected to those seats are Mayor Pro Tempore Monica Thibodeau (245 votes), incumbent council member Kevin Lingard (229 votes), political newcomer Marc Murray (226 votes) and incumbent council members Sandy Whitman (199 votes) and Bren Chasen (193 votes).
Political newcomer Miriam Rollin fell short by a difference of four votes (189 votes). Rollin could request a recount, as results fall within the threshold of 1% of total votes cast required by state statute to request a recount.
Fourteen ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Kill Devil Hills
In Kill Devil Hills, two commissioner seats were up for election. Incumbents Terry Gray and T. Dillon Heikens ran unopposed and were both reelected. Gray received 385 votes and Heikens received 314 votes. Forty-six ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Kitty Hawk
In Kitty Hawk, in addition to the mayor’s seat, two town council seats were on the ballot. Incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Pruitt and political newcomer Peter Mantz each ran unopposed. Pruitt received 579 votes and Mantz received 427 votes. Twenty-eight ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Manteo
In Manteo, the mayor’s seat plus three commissioner seats were up for election. Incumbent commissioners Michael Basnight, Eddie Mann and Ruth Jane Stetson each ran unopposed for reelection. Basnight received 323 votes, Mann received 275 and Stetson received 255. Eighty ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Nags Head
In Nags Head, in addition to the mayor’s seat, two commissioner seats and one unexpired term commissioner seat were on the ballot.
Incumbent Commissioner Bob Sanders and political newcomer Megan Vaughan were elected to the two full-term, four-year commissioner seats, with 682 and 673 votes, respectively. Mayor Pro Tem Michael “Mike” Siers, who also ran for the full-term seats, fell short with 419 votes. Two ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Political newcomer Molly Harrison was elected to fill the two-year unexpired term seat, with 656 votes. C.P. “Buster” Nunemaker III and Keith Sawyer fell short with 246 and with 69 votes, respectively. No ballots were cast with write-in candidates in this race.
Southern Shores
In Southern Shores, in addition to the mayor’s seat, one council seat was on the ballot. Paula F. Sherlock ran unopposed for reelection. She received 414 votes. Seven ballots were cast with write-in candidates.
Turnout
A slow but steady stream of voters cast ballots in the municipal election in Nags Head the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Candidates outside by the parking lot chat with arriving voters. (Photo by Anthony Leone)
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 the past five municipal election cycles, Dare’s highest turnout was 26% in 2019. The lowest was 19.64% in 2015.
Tuesday’s unofficial election results would mark a new record lowest turnout, as they show a 19.35% turnout—3,405 ballots cast out of 17,601 eligible voters—in Dare County for the 2025 election.
Statewide, municipal voter turnout has been lower than Dare County’s turnout each year, with a high of 16.82% in 2017 and a low of 13.66% in 2015.
However, if unofficial results become finalized as they are, 2025 would also change that. The unofficial statewide 19.65% voter turnout in 2025 would be the highest statewide percentage turnout of the past decade, and the first turnout rate higher than Dare County’s.
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, including nearly 300 voters across Currituck, Dare and Hyde counties. The full list of affected voters is available at www.ncsbe.gov/registrationrepair.
“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.
For more information about voter registration repair, visit the Dare County Board of Elections’ website, the Currituck County Board of Elections’ website or the Hyde County Board of Elections’ website.
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