In its own way perhaps the most interesting election yesterday.
The town council campaign was tied to a $6 million road improvement bond that would have raised property taxes. The bond was turned down and half the town council was voted out.
Mayor John Bost survived by less than 2 percentage points. But —get this — he says he might not accept his victory in protest against the anti-bond groups alleged tactics:
Bost said the group’s tactics were “immoral” and showed his disgust late Tuesday.
“What we did was go back to 1986 with the same leadership — it’s blind leading blind,” Bost said. “The way that the polls were manned — in some cases, (we had) seniors who were instructed how to vote, who were even followed almost to the door.”
Bost said he believes that some people, confused by the pollsters, erroneously thought that in order to vote “no” for the bond, they had to write the other names in.
“That’s why you see people getting 2,300 votes. That’s never been the case in Clemmons — something was skewed there. Now it may not be illegal but it was immoral.”
Even more interesting is former Mayor Nat Swanson was involved with the anti-bond group. Swanson said Tuesday’s election showed that the voters are no longer willing to accpet more public debt.
