Carol Pritchett will lead Lake Lure for the next two years. Jim Proctor returns to the Town Council and Dave Lusk joins him. Here's what the numbers say, and what comes next.

As of 9:07 p.m., with early, mail-in and Election Day ballots counted, unofficial results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections show:

Mayor

• Carol Pritchett: 434 (60.28%)
• Write-in votes (all names): 286 (39.72%). Individual totals for Kathy Tanner and John Edmonds Kozma are expected by the county canvass.

Town Council (two seats)

• Jim Proctor: 431 (32.31%) — elected
• Dave Lusk: 383 (28.71%) — elected
• Friedrich Jaeger-Faber: 253 (18.97%)
• Richard Sayles: 253 (18.97%)
• Write-in votes: 14 (1.05%)

Ballots in the mayor's race: 720. Early and mail ballots made up 448 of them, about 62%, and 272 were cast on Election Day.

These numbers are unofficial until Rutherford County certifies them at the canvass. Even if every write-in vote for mayor went to a single person, Mayor Pritchett would still lead by 148 votes.

Mayor Carol Pritchett, who has led the town since 2019, wins another two-year term. She has steered Lake Lure through its hardest stretch in living memory — Hurricane Helene, the drained lake, and a recovery measured in dam designs, sewer lines and dredging contracts. Kathy Tanner and John Edmonds Kozma did something difficult and uncommon: they ran write-in campaigns, starting late and without their names on the ballot, because they believed the town could be served differently. 286 residents agreed with them enough to write a name in by hand. That's not nothing, and it shouldn't be treated as nothing.

A word to everyone who ran

Running for office in a small town is personal. Your neighbors know where you live, where you get coffee, and what you said at the last meeting. Every candidate on this year's ballot — and the two who weren't on it but ran anyway — stood up at forums, answered hard questions in public, and put their names forward for a job that pays little and asks a lot. Thank you, all of you.

A word to the voters

Some of you are thrilled tonight. Some of you are disappointed. Most of you probably just want the lake full, the roads open and the town running.

This election came at the end of a hard two years. Helene took more than a lake from us. It tested friendships, businesses and patience, and some of the arguments since then — online and in Town Hall — have been sharper than this place deserves. We've disagreed about the Lured Market dispute, about planning, about how decisions get made and explained.

Those disagreements were real, and they don't disappear because the ballots are counted. But here's what's also real: the people on the other side of those arguments are the same people who showed up with chainsaws and casseroles in October 2024. We are going to need each other for the next phase of this recovery as much as we did for the first.

So tonight, Lake Lure Insider congratulates Mayor Carol Pritchett, Commissioner Jim Proctor and Dave Lusk. We wish them well, and we mean it. When they get it right, we'll say so. Their success is the town's success.

Openness is how we heal

An olive branch only works if it comes with something to hold onto. Ours is simple: the best way to rebuild trust in Lake Lure is to make the town's business easy to see.

That isn't a partisan idea, and it isn't aimed at any one person. It's the promise North Carolina's public records and open meetings laws already make to every resident. In practice, it looks like:

• Meeting agendas and full packets posted in advance, so residents can read before they speak.
• Public records requests answered promptly and completely.
• Meetings recorded and posted, with real time for public comment.
• Big decisions — the dam, the sewer system, the comprehensive plan, legal settlements — explained in plain language before they're final, not after.

Every candidate this year, in one way or another, talked about communication and trust. That shared ground is the best place to start. Lake Lure Insider will keep doing our part: covering meetings, reading the documents, asking questions, and publishing what we find — the good news included.

What happens next

• Canvass: Rutherford County election officials will review remaining write-in, absentee, provisional and military/overseas ballots, then certify the results at the county canvass at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13. The meeting is open to the public.
• Write-in totals: Individual totals for write-in candidates are expected by the county canvass.
• Swearing-in: Expected in mid-December at a regular Town Council meeting. Commissioner Scott Doster, who did not seek re-election, finishes his service when the new council is sworn in. Thank you, Commissioner Doster.
• Your turn: The next regular Town Council meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m. at the temporary Town Hall. Go. Listen. Speak. That's how a small town stays a community.

The lake will fill once again. The town will continue to rebuild. And it'll go better if we do it together.

How tonight unfolded: First Lake Lure results and the story of the early vote.

Last updated: 2026-11-03