SHEPHERDSTOWN — On Tuesday morning, Shepherdstown residents began making their way to Town Hall to participate in the Municipal Election. By the end of the voting period that night, about 47 percent of the registered voters in the Corporation of Shepherdstown had participated in the highly contested election, with approximately 342 ballots needing to be counted from absentee, early and day-of voting.

The voter turnout, according to Lori Robertson, was the highest she can recall in her 14 years as Town Recorder. The last Municipal Election, in comparison, boasted a much smaller voter turnout, with a total of 159 ballots cast.

“This is the most that I’ve seen since I’ve began presiding over the election,” said outgoing Town Recorder Lori Robertson. “There have been some years where we’ve had a total of 35! A total of 35. So this is way better!

“A contested election, they say, brings in more voters, which is a good thing,” Robertson said, as she waited for all of the ballots to be opened, before the ballot count began.

A number of Shepherdstown residents could be seen waiting around the front doors of Town Hall, as well as inside of its entryway, eager to watch the ballot count and be the first to hear the election results. One of those individuals was town council candidate Marcy Bartlett.

“There’s a lot of envelopes! It’s pretty cool to see the process slowly taking place,” Bartlett said. “This election has been good to get people talking, when they might not have previously thought about town government at all. It may be challenging at times, to have more people engaged, but more people hopefully means that we can do more.”

Shepherdstown resident Stephen Skinner agreed with Bartlett, while he waited inside Town Hall, as representative for mayoral candidate James Gatz.

“I think we’ll come out of this election with a new level of engagement, one way or the other,” Skinner said.

The counting of the ballots took several hours to complete, with results being posted on the door of Town Hall and then subsequently celebrated by community members and candidates in the Mecklenburg Inn.

The Corporation of Shepherdstown’s 2024 Municipal Election results for mayor were: 127 votes for incumbent Jim Auxer and 222 votes for James Gatz. A total of 251 votes were cast for the uncontested election of Chris Stroech as Town Recorder. The election results for the five Town Council seats were: Marty Amerikaner, with 232 votes; Shannon Thomas, with 208 votes; Linus Bicker, with 204 votes; Cheryl Roberts, with 197 votes; Marcy Bartlett, with 182 votes; Lori Robertson, with 161 votes; and Jenny Haynes, with 121 votes.