For most of its history, Webster’s elections have been sleepy affairs. At times, there weren’t even enough people willing to step forward and serve. This fall, that dynamic looks much different. 

“I’m really excited to see the number of people in this race,” said Dale Collins, an incumbent Webster commissioner who won his last race as a write-in with just 14 votes.

Both major parties in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District have for years been plagued by political instability. 

Chairs come and go, strategies collapse as quickly as they form while rank-and-file party faithful are left scrambling.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Sept. 4 held its general election for tribal council. Twelve tribal members — two from each community — are elected to tribal council every two years. Turnout hovered at about 30% of eligible voters. Four women were elected to the board, a historic marker. 

An Aug. 21 forum featuring most of the candidates in Sylva’s upcoming municipal election painted a broad portrait of a community wrestling with growth, values and limited resources, but it also revealed a few stark differences that could prove critical when voters begin going to the polls in November. 

Congressional redistricting  — the process of drawing electoral districts to account for population changes — was conceived by the Founding Fathers as a once-per-decade redrawing of district lines following the decennial U.S. census.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding former Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran, the new sheriff, Brian Kirkland, only a month and a half on the job, will have company on the ballot come 2026.  

Indivisible Commonground WNC will host a free candidate forum for the upcoming Sylva Board of Commissioners municipal election on Thursday, Aug. 21 at the Jackson County Public Library. The event will be held in the Community Room from 6-7:30 p.m. 

Following a period of decreased activity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was exacerbated by the impacts of Hurricane Helene, the Association of Retired Faculty and Staff of Western Carolina University has embarked upon a process of organizational reinvigoration. 

Brian Kirkland, who served as interim sheriff in Swain County following the scandalous retirement of Curtis Cochran, has been appointed to serve out the rest of the current term. 

Indivisible Commonground WNC will host a free candidate forum for the upcoming Sylva Board of Commissioners municipal election on Thursday, Aug. 21, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.