LAURINBURG — Less than 25% of the eligible registered voters cast a ballot in the 2021 municipal elections, but the big story were the number of write-in votes cast.

Across the four municipalities — East Laurinburg, Wagram, Gibson and Maxton — there were a total of 13 write-in candidates who garnered 83 of the 268 votes cast.

Scotland County had 1,088 eligible voters for the municipal election.

According to Dell Parker, director of the Scotland County Board of Elections, there are no runoffs or recounts for any of the election results. She also stated that the turnout rate of 24.63% was typical of municipal election years.

Unofficial election results are:

East Laurinburg

With only one registered candidate for office going into the election season, the town was reliant on write-in candidates in order to fill the mayor’s post and three council seats — and there were 10 write-in candidates, including three for the mayor’s seat.

In that mayor’s race, Gail Chavis took six votes to outdistance Terry Goodwin, who had four votes, and Joni Weatherford, who had one vote.

In the council race, incumbent Tyresa Haywood was ousted after garnering just three votes. Winning the three seats available were Glenda Locklear with 10 votes, Judy Hagan with six votes and Terry Godwin with six votes. All three were write-in candidates.

Also receiving write-in votes were Gail Chavis with two, Mary Scott with one, Debbie Clark with one and Grant Cobb with one.

The winners still have the opportunity to accept or reject their election victory. In addition, none of the winning candidates may end up serving, since the town is on the cusp of having its charter revoked by the General Assembly because of financial and managerial missteps.

The state’s Local Government Commission on Tuesday voted to impound the town’s financial records.

Wagram

In the race for town mayor, George Purcell nipped challenger Barbara Pierce by just four votes, 57-53. There was one write-in vote cast.

In the town council race for three open seats, only three candidates were registered and all three were elected. Hyder Massey Jr. received 77 votes, Robert Laughlin took 63 votes and Lori Reynolds earned 50 votes.

Gibson

Archie Herring, a write-in candidate for the mayor’s seat, earned 40 votes to challenge Gwen Arrigon, but Arrigon secured 52 votes to win the election. Annie Taylor received 18 votes in the race.

Three seats were open on the town council, and the three who took those seats were Marjorie Whitlock with 73 votes, Adam Liles with 64 votes and Eric Stubbs with 64 votes.

Finishing out of the running were Howard Chavis with 54 votes and Greg Leach with 54 votes, along with write-in candidates Archie Herring with three votes and Lillie McLaurin with two votes.

Maxton

The town had two council seats up for grabs, and 31 Scotland County residents who have Maxton addresses cast ballots.

Virgil Hutchinson took 12 of those votes, Emmett Morton received 11 and Victor Womack Sr. got eight.

But when those votes were counted along with those from Robeson County, Hutchinson won the election with 218 votes, Womack Sr. was second with 167 votes and Morton finished third with 101 votes.

There was a write-in candidate who received seven Robeson County votes.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or cvincent@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.