Election Day dawned clear and sunny in Cherokee Sept. 5, with polls opening at 6 a.m. for voters to choose the tribe’s next chief, vice chief and Tribal Council. 

When Election Day arrives in Cherokee Sept. 5, all 12 Tribal Council seats will be up for grabs, as well as the offices of principal chief and vice chief and three school board seats. 

Over the last four years, Richard Sneed and Teresa McCoy have found themselves on the opposite side of many an argument, and in September the incumbent chief will face the former Big Cove councilmember once more, at the ballot box. 

After years of fighting with county commissioners, a judge has ordered Swain County to fund retirement benefits for Elections Director Joan Weeks.

Cherokee’s Sept. 5 Election Day is coming up, and the 24 candidates running for 12 available Tribal Council seats are working to get their message out. The Smoky Mountain News has been reaching out to candidates with a series of questions about various issues facing the tribe, with the responses received thus far included here. 

With the first two days of election filing in the books, only three people have signed up to run for elected positions in Jackson County municipalities, which have a total of eight open seats between them. 

Incumbents wasted little time in declaring their intentions to defend their seats after municipal candidate filing opened at noon on July 5, but as of press time on July 9, there were already two incumbents hoping to move up in the ranks, if their campaigns are successful.

Franklin Mayor Bob Scott has signed up to run for re-election and so far has one challenger — current Councilmember Barbara McRae. 

After more than a decade working together as members of Tribal Council, Alan “B” Ensley and Jim Owle are vying for the position of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ next vice chief. 

Early voting is now over in Cherokee, with polls to open for the Primary Election on Thursday, June 6, in what has already been an eventful election season.