The talk at barber shops and hair salons, around water coolers and dining tables have been about little else. The election of 2024, in fact, has been a topic of conversation for arguably the last four years. However, at Tuesday’s Nov. 5, 2024, election, decisions were made for the county, the state, and the whole of America.
Around 3 a.m. on Nov. 6, the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, took to a stage in Palm Beach County, Fla., to accept his second, but non-consecutive, term in the White House. Trump beat his opponent, current U.S. vice president Kamala Harris, in the popular vote and the electoral vote. As 47th president, he will be the second president in America’s history to have won an election, been beaten in the subsequent election, and then won in a third election. Grover Cleveland did the same as the 22nd president in 1884 and then became the 24th president in 1892.
Surrounded by his family and some key supporters, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his running mate J.D. Vance, Trump listened to people in the audience shout “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” He thanked “hard-working people … all corners … all backgrounds – a common core of common sense.”
He also said, “I’m asking every citizen all across our land to join me in this noble and righteous endeavor. It’s time to put the division of the past four years behind us. It’s time to unite …to put our country first. Together we can truly make America great again for all Americans.”
Before he closed out his remarks, Trump mentioned North Carolina, a state pivotal to his win; he focused on the “tragic Hurricane Helene.” He explained how he asked billionaire Elon Musk to get Starlink communication systems to affected areas, “and he had them there so fast – it was incredible.”
In Macon County and the state
On the morning of Election Day, both Democrat and Republican volunteers weighed in at the polling station at Robert C. Carpenter Community Center on Georgia Road. Republican volunteers Michael Lyons and Becky Prince shared that there was a “steady stream,” as there had been during the early voting time period; yet, exit discussions indicated a drastic increase in first-time voters.
“Their main policy matter they mentioned to us was the security of this country and the border,” said Lyons. “Mostly, I think people in general are happy to have the election come to an end as there have been built up feelings over things like large Trump signs destroyed that we had to replace. But we all have to accept that there is one winner.”
Democrat volunteers Marcia Doty and (someone who asked not to be named) pointed out: “We have less Democrats in this county, so we’ve gone into this expecting Republicans to have a win here. But we are cautiously optimistic that Democrats will make contributions to local and state races.”
One of the main county initiatives on the ballot was the one-quarter cent tax to help pay for Macon County School projects, namely Franklin High School. However, it failed for the second time.
The Macon County School Board of Education race consisted of three contenders; the candidate with the most votes was Jim Breedlove, who won out over John deVille and Danny Reitmeier.
Additionally, the North Carolina Citizenship Requirement for Voting Amendment on the ballot was established to require that only United States citizens who are 18 years or older can vote. Overwhelmingly, this measure passed, 77.6% to 22.4%.
North Carolina’s new governor is Democrat Josh Stein and Democrat Rachel Hunt took the lieutenant governor’s seat. Republican State Senator Kevin Corbin and Republican State Representative Karl Gillespie retained their seats with wide margins.
For more information about other individuals voted in at the state level, visit https://www.ncsbe.gov/results-data/election-results.
Going into Election Day, numbers associated with voting in Macon County and North Carolina were unprecedented. As of Monday, Nov. 4, Macon County had 29,418 registered voters.
“Macon County has never had the number of registered voters as we do now,” said Melanie D. Thibault, director of Macon County Board of Elections.
Regarding early voting for Macon County, her “prediction” was 15,000, which she said would have been a record number. However, early voters in Macon County exceeded Thibault’s expectations. In fact, 16,171 total voted early; with 2,682 of those registered as Democrats, and 7,531 registered as Republicans and the remainder primarily unaffiliated.
Thibault also informed that more than 4.2 million North Carolinians cast their ballots during the early voting period. This number was a significant increase over the 2020 election’s early voting record of around 3.6 million. All total, North Carolina has 7.8 million registered voters. For weeks leading up to Election Day, the state’s board of elections regularly offered information for voters in the Hurricane Helene affected areas to ensure residents in those Western North Carolina counties had ample opportunities to vote.
Trump secured 51% of North Carolina votes.
Sporting local artwork
Practically every early voter and Election Day voter exiting Macon County’s polls was wearing an “I Voted” sticker. Thanks to Macon Middle School seventh-grader Dawson Kendall, the stickers sported artwork that included a mountain vista and rubies to represent the area’s gem mining industry. Dawson won first place in the “I Voted” sticker contest presented by The Franklin Press and the Macon County Board of Elections. Students from different Macon County Schools participated in the contest, and their art was presented in the hallways at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Center, an early voting site on Georgia Road, for more than a month. Arts Council of Macon County and the Macon County Art Association judged the entries.
Dawson shared that it was “exciting” to see his art adhered as a sticker on so many people in Macon County. Dawson, who moved to Franklin with his family three years ago from Carlsbad, N.M., said he decided to enter the contest after his mother, Robin Kendall, saw the details on Facebook.
“She told me about it and I said ‘heck yeah, I’ll enter it!’” said Dawson. “I didn’t know if I would win because I didn’t know how many students would enter. I looked at pictures to get the colors right, but it’s not a specific mountain range.”
As the winner of the contest, Dawson received $100.