THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996             TAG: 9601130308
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                     LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

FILING PERIOD FINDS LITTLE SOLID INTEREST ELECTION RULES COULD ACCOUNT FOR SOME OF THE PAUCITY.

Two weeks into the filing period for spring primary elections, there remains only one contested race for office in Pasquotank County.

Three people have filed to fill the at-large School Board seat that Robert Thorne plans to vacate later this year.

However:

No one has filed for the Outside City Limits seat that board Chairman Marion Harris has said he won't seek again.

And no one has filed for the Northern Inside County Commissioner seat that Davis Sawyer says he plans to leave.

And no one has filed to run against County Commissioners Zee Lamb and Hugh Clinkscales, School Board member Peggy McPherson, state Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens, Jr. or Pasquotank Register of Deeds Dollie J. Summerour.

In fact, no one has filed for office all week long.

``They keep telling us that they're going to come in. But we haven't seen them yet,'' said Linda Page, deputy director of the Pasquotank County Board of Elections.

``We're just waiting. They'll probably all come and hit us at one time. . .

Election rules help explain why three people are crammed onto the hopefuls list for the At-Large School Board seat while the Outside City Limits race is wide open.

School Board candidate Carl G. Conner said he tried to file for the Outside City seat. But Conner is from Nixonton, like current board member Nita Coleman. And state law says two people from the same county township cannot serve on the board unless one is elected at-large.

So Conner, R. Rodney Robinson and Frank A. Jennings III are locked in a three-way race for a single seat.

Residents of Mount Hermon, Newland and Salem townships would be eligible for the Outside City School Board seat this year, elections officials said.

Candidates for office must live in the districts they represent. Eligible precincts for each district are:

Pasquotank Commissioners - Northern Inside: City precincts 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B.

Pasquotank Commissioners - Southern Outside: Mt. Hermon, Nixonton, Salem.

Board of Education - Inside City Limits: 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B, 3-A, 3-B, 4-A, 4-B.

At-Large - All city and county precincts. by CNB