At least one available seat on Isle of Wight County’s Board of Supervisors will see a contested race in November.

Meanwhile, no candidates have qualified for the District 2 supervisor seat to fill the remainder of the late William McCarty’s term. 

McCarty, 48, who’d served on the Board of Supervisors since 2016, died of double pneumonia on Jan. 25, just over a year into his third four-year term in office. On March 6, the four remaining supervisors voted to appoint Thomas Distefano, formerly of the county’s Planning Commission, to temporarily fill the vacated seat through election day. Distefano told the Times on June 13 he isn’t planning to run in the special election.

County Registrar Lisa Betterton told the Times on June 12 that Robert Eley recently qualified to get his name on the Nov. 4 ballot for District 5, formerly known as the Carrsville District. Don Rosie, the incumbent District 5 representative, has also qualified for the ballot.

Less than a week remains for Isle of Wight County residents looking to run for any of the available four-year terms on the Board of Supervisors or School Board to submit their paperwork. Candidates have until June 17 to file their declaration of candidacy and petition of qualified voters. Candidates seeking to run in the special election for the District 2 supervisor seat have until Aug. 15.

Per state law, declarations of candidacy must be accompanied by a petition bearing the signatures of at least 125 registered voters who reside in the voting district for the office sought. The deadline coincides with the date for Democratic and Republican primary elections to decide each party’s nominees for the House of Delegates, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Eley formerly represented the Carrsville area on the School Board from 2012 to 2016. Rosie began his tenure as a supervisor in 2018 and previously served for many years on the county’s Planning Commission.

Two additional Board of Supervisors seats and two School Board seats are up for election this year. Rudolph Jefferson, who since 2013 has held the former Hardy District, now District 3, supervisor’s seat, was as of June 12 the only candidate to qualify for the ballot in that race.

The School Board’s District 3 and District 5 seats are also available. Michael Cunningham, a former substitute teacher and Army veteran elected to his first term representing the District 3 seat in 2021, said in April and confirmed at the June 12 School Board meeting he won’t seek another term.

Betterton said if no candidates for one or more seats qualify by the June 17 deadline, write-in votes will decide those races.

John Collick, who holds the District 5 seat, initially said he too planned to step down but in May said he’d reconsidered and would begin collecting the needed signatures. Collick, a retired Marine, was also first elected in 2021.

“It’s going better than expected,” Collick told the Times on June 12. He said he’s on track to meet the June 17 qualifying deadline.

Surry County Registrar Sharna’ White said as of June 12 no one had filed to get his or her name on the ballot for the Claremont District seat on that county’s School Board. Laura Ruffin, who’d held the seat since 2012, died at age 77 on April 28 just over a year into her fourth consecutive term. White said the deadline to submit candidacy paperwork for the Nov. 4 special election is Aug. 15. Whomever is elected on Nov. 4 would serve the nearly three-year remainder of Ruffin’s term.

The Surry School Board voted May 28 to appoint Wayne Gholston to temporarily fill Ruffin’s seat until the special election.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:47 a.m. on June 14 to correct that the deadline to submit paperwork for the District 2 supervisor race is Aug. 15, not June 17.