WF town charters and elections reflect their times

Wake Forest’s town elections are managed by the Wake County Board of Elections and authorized by its charter granted by the State of North Carolina. State law says there are four forms of elections available to cities and towns but a town/city must choose one and codify it in its charter.
Wake Forest has been chartered three times. First was in 1880 when it became the Town of Wake Forest College. In 1909, because of the name – apparently the college did not want to operate an electric system – it was rechartered as the Town of Wake Forest.
The third rewriting and rechartering took place in 1972 after the town elected John Lyon, local grocery store owner, as mayor; vote-leading Ailey Mae Young as the first black town commissioner and second woman along with Tommy Byrne, retired Yankee’s pitcher, and John B. Cole, owner of a small store on North White Street between the white Mill Village and the black low-income housing built by Wake County but where everyone met. Those four joined Dessie Harper, the first woman, and Dr. Carroll Trotter, a seminary professor. They were unlikely revolutionaries.
First they realized there was a need so hired the first town administrator (later relabeled correctly as town manager) Julian Prosser. Next they ordered a study of the six areas around town where subdivisions, businesses and industries which used the town’s water and sewer had been built. Annexations began, and the court fights went on through the 1980s.
And then they redid that 1909 charter with its outdated ordinances and prohibitions, including the one banning beer, wine and alcohol in all forms not only from within the town limits but for one mile outside the limits. They left it out. Peggy Allen, owner of The Wake Weekly with her husband, Bob, was opposed to alcohol in all forms. She was concerned about that ordinance and wanted it kept. She was flummoxed when she learned of the deletion. Lyon immediately added beer to the items in his grocery store.
They also chose the form of town elections, the nonpartisan plurality method.
The Wake County Board of Elections website says: “This is the most common municipal election method. All candidates for a position are listed on the ballot, without party affiliation.
“The top vote-getters are elected, regardless of whether or not they received a majority of votes cast. If the contest is for more than one seat, the person or persons receiving the next-highest vote totals are also elected. For example, if 7 candidates are running for 2 seats, the candidates that finish first and second are elected. The general election is held in November and there is no primary.”
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