ELIZABETHTOWN — This year’s Bladen County elections concluded with some expected victories, as well as some upsets.

Despite the best efforts of opponent Hakeem Brown, Jim McVicker claimed a third term last night as Bladen County Sheriff in an unsurprising victory. Brown, the Democratic candidate, received 5, 216 votes (44.49 percent) while his Republican counterpart secured 55.51 percent of ballots cast with 6,507 ballots.

This was the second standoff between Brown and McVicker. The pair also ran for election in 2018 with Brown being defeated by a margin of 6,950-5,562. Brown put up a good fight, but defeating an incumbent is a notoriously difficult challenge for a reason.

Republican Dennis R. Edwards claimed the county-wide seat of the Bladen County Board of Education with 32.31 percent of votes cast, equaling 3,651 votes. Democrat Harfel Davis and Republican Steve Kwiatkowski claimed the other two available seats with 2,442 votes and 1,703 votes respectively. Vince Rozier, five-term Board of Education member, was defeated by a large margin, coming in last place with only 887 votes (7.85 percent).

Democrat Gary N. Rhoda ran unopposed for the Bladen County Board of Education District 01 seat.

Republican Cristin Hursey will replace the retiring Niki Dennis as the new Clerk of Superior Court. Hursey, 6,841 votes, defeated Democrat Althea Dixon Weaver 4,803 votes, by 17 percentage points.

County Commissioners Arthur Bullock (D), Charles Ray Peterson (R), and Cameron McGill (R) ran unopposed.

The sale of malt beverages and unfortified wines county-wide was approved by Bladen County voters while the local sales and use tax referendum was rejected once more.

The malt beverage referendum had 6,649 votes for and 4,664 votes against, a separation of 17 percentage points. Similarly, the unfortified wine referendum has 6,610 votes in favor with 4,651 opposing votes. Once again, 17 percentage points separated the two.

The local sales and use tax referendum was defeated by a margin of 15 points, receiving 6,516 votes against and 4,870 votes for.

Across Bladen County’s 17 precincts, 5,231 votes were cast by residents during Tuesday’s 13-hour voting period. The 17-day one-stop voting period, which ended on Saturday, yielded 6,630 votes.

53.44 percent of the 22,195 registered voters in Bladen County participated in the 2022 midterm election with 11,861 total recorded votes.