An off election year, which means that nobody went to the polls, practically.

But there were two local results that caught my eye:

My friend Dawn Morgan was re-elected mayor of Kernersville for the 300th time (it seems) — she won 95.8% of the vote.  It helped, I suppose, that she ran unopposed.

And in Walnut Cove, they passed a referendum which would allow for the service of mixed drinks.  That won 55.6% of the vote.  The measure of the referendum was put on the ballot by the owner of a Mexican restaurant.  I have two things to say about this: (1) 55.6% seems awfully close for such a rather mundane measure.  I mean, if you’re okay with beer and wine and raw liquors, what objection could you have to mixed drinks? and (2) Walnut Cove has a restaurant?

UPDATE:  Actually, I just learned of a third interesting issue, also out of Walnut Cove.  With the Walnut Cove Board of Commissioners, challengers George Mitchell and Danny Hairston have won the two seats that were open in a field of six candidates, pushing out incumbents Elwood Mabe and Kim Lewis.  The reason, it appears, is because Lewis and Mabe voted (along with the rest of the Board) to allow the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (now the Department of Environmental Quality) to probe for shale gas or oil on a sliver of town property in the Walnut Tree neighborhood, which lies in Stokes County.  In other words, Walnut Cove’s governing body said “yes” to fracking, so two of them just got ousted. Full story here.