As far as Aberdeen Mayor Robert Farrell is concerned, whether he loves or hates President Donald Trump has nothing to do with how well he leads the town commission. Farrell is opposed to proposed state legislation that would shift Moore County’s local races from nonpartisan to partisan elections.
Senate Bill 876 would also lead to partisan elections in Albemarle, which is in Stanly County. It shift local elections in all these areas from odd to even years in an attempt to increase turnout.
While the Moore County Board of Commissioners unanimously requested the legislation in April, nearly a dozen localities named in the bill aren’t as enthusiastic.
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Carolina Public Press spoke to some of the 20 local leaders who are registered unaffiliated, and would therefore either have to undergo a burdensome petition process to get on the ballot if the bill becomes law or side with the Democratic or Republican party.
They each said they would stick with their unaffiliated label, but that the writing on the wall was clear: if this becomes law, Moore County’s municipal representation will get much more Republican.
Knowing what you’re voting for
Moore County Board of Commissioners Chair Nick Picerno is tired of deception, he said. The county is staunchly conservative, with 41.4% registered Republicans, 39.5% registered unaffiliated, and just 18% registered Democrats, according to State Board data.
Picerno said he thinks some Democrats register as unaffiliated candidates to have a better shot of getting elected.
“Then once you elect them, you find out where they stand, and they may be totally different from what they were presenting themselves in the actual campaigns,” he said.
While the Democratic and Republican labels don’t fit everyone, he said the parties are so far apart now that identifying with one or the other would provide clues about candidates’ basic beliefs in partisan elections.
That’s why Picerno presented a resolution in April calling for the legislature to make all local Moore County races, from town councils to school board, partisan elections. It also asked to shift elections to even years to align with state and national races in order to increase lagging turnout. The vote was unanimous.
Lawmakers listened. Rep. Neal Jackson, R-Moore, is now carrying a bill that would do just that.
“At its core, the bill is about making local government more transparent, more efficient, and more responsive to the voters it serves,” he said before the state House voted to approve the bill on Tuesday, June 16.
It gives voters more information, he added. The vote was mostly along party lines, with Reps. Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, and Carla Cunningham, U-Mecklenburg, siding with Republicans in approval.
Staying unaffiliated in partisan elections
Farrell is one of three unaffiliated mayors impacted by the bill. He’s served as Aberdeen’s mayor for 13 years, and has been running for a council seat since 1999. Every time, he ran and won as a registered unaffiliated.
Changing the system to partisan elections now would make his reelection chances worse.
“If you put it as partisan, then you’ve got an R and a D,” Farrell said. “That eliminates people from having to look up who they’re voting for. They go into the voting booth. If they’re Republican, they just hit the R. If they’re a Democrat, they just hit the D. As it is now, you might want to find out who this person is.”
He isn’t interested in changing his party affiliation to win an election, though, he told Carolina Public Press.
Neither is Bob Curtin, Southern Pines councilmember. Curtin, a registered unaffiliated, feels that his independence reflects the independence of the county, which is nearly 40% unaffiliated. It allows him to stay true to who he is and focus on local issues,
But running as an unaffiliated candidate in a partisan race is “exponentially harder” than in a nonpartisan race. Unaffiliated candidates in partisan races must get a certain number of signatures on a petition before they can be added to the ballot.
Under the proposed bill, unaffiliated candidates would have to get signatures from 4% of registered voters in the county or their district, depending on their race, by noon on primary election day.
Curtin doesn’t think he has a great shot of overcoming the petition hurdle if he were to run again. While he won his 2025 race with 1,486, or 41% of the vote, he said might need more signatures than that to even get on the ballot.
“We are an incredibly multicultural community; we have a strong military presence, we have a strong retired presence, we have a strong leisure with our golf, our hospitals as well,” Curtin said.
“So we have a great cross section of America, and to tell them to pigeonhole our community into one or the other (party) to me is counter to what we have agreed upon in our own laws.”
Taylortown councilmember Nadine Moody plans to stand her ground. She isn’t happy with either political party right now, and doesn’t pay attention to the registrations of her fellow board members.
“We are a unified board right now, and the majority of the town people or residents are satisfied with us,” she said.
She feels like if the bill became law and resulted in partisan elections for local offices, people who did not identify as Republicans in Moore County would be dismissed, regardless of which candidate was the best fit.
Pinehurst Councilmember Kevin Fitzpatrick sent a letter to lawmakers opposing the bill. He noted that local government issues are different from, and largely less partisan than, state and national political concerns.
“Town councils and school boards focus on public safety, infrastructure, planning, recreation, and quality of life,” he wrote. “These are community issues, not partisan issues. Success depends on practical problem solving and collaboration, not party labels.”
Albemarle Mayor Ronnie Mitchell lives in Stanly County, but is included in the proposed legislation. He took issue with lawmakers not asking him for feedback on the idea.
“All local elections should be unaffiliated, because … locally we represent all the people, not just a D or an R,” he said.
Partisan elections for school board
The Moore County Board of Education may include five registered Republicans and two registered unaffiliated members, but it’s much more “balanced” than it was a few years ago, board member Amy Dahl said.
Before, six of the seven board members were essentially handpicked by the Moore County Republican Party, she said.
That board “destabilized” schools by bringing culture war issues to the county, which led to turnover of quality teachers, principals and administrators, Dahl said.
But now, she said there are only four Moore County Republican Party favorites, two registered unaffiliated members and one Republican opposed by the county party. As a result, there’s a fairly diverse set of perspectives, she said.
If Senate Bill 876 becomes law, Dahl worries that the board will return to its old hyperpartisan ways.
In her 2024 election, Dahl earned more votes than any school board candidate across the four districts. She thinks that highlights that Moore County residents do want a more centrist voice pushing back against some of the more partisan ideas.
“Getting majority on any issue requires listening and taking into account all viewpoints,” she said about the current, nonpartisan board.
“It basically forces us to take a thorough and responsible look at any actions and emphasize, how are they going to affect the children? It’s really a pretty good hedge against ideas that are really ideological or trendy or arbitrary or anything like that.”
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