DOBSON — Mayor Ricky Draughn won the election for mayor by four votes, according to the unofficial results by the Surry County Board of Elections.

Ricky Draughn, 54, has been mayor of Dobson since 2001. He is also the fire chief for the town.

Draughn received 132 votes, with his opponent Kenneth Earnest capturing 128 votes. There were three write-in votes for the mayor’s seat.

After the unofficial results were posted, Draughn said he hopes the win by such a narrow margin will stand.

“I’m hoping it will hold. I just feel grateful and humbled by the people who voted for me and trust me,” Draughn said.

He is the president of Draughn’s Auto Parts in Dobson where he has worked for more than 40 years. Draughn is a lifelong resident of Dobson where he resides with his wife of 26 years, Teresa. They have two children and seven grandchildren.

At around 9 p.m. last night, Earnest said he was still waiting on election officials to count the curbside votes.

“There were only two of those, so even if I got both of those, I would still be two short,” Earnest said.

He doesn’t have any plans to ask for a recount.

“It’s electronic counting, so I wouldn’t ask for it. I’d like to thank all the people who helped and all the people that voted. It was good to come so close,” Earnest said.

Atkins, Lawson take

commissioner seats

In unofficial results, Wayne Atkins won 27.94 percent of the vote with 140 votes to secure one of the two commissioner seats up for grabs in Dobson. John Lawson captured 21.76 percent of the vote with 109 votes, which gives him the second seat. Six candidates in all were in the race in which the top two vote-getters win the seats, including Ron Atkins, who got 19.36 percent, Kermit Draughn, who got 15.77 percent, Jonathan Snow with 9.58 percent and Ted Ring got 5.59 percent of the votes. There were no write-in candidates.

Atkins, 65, brings decades of work in local government to his campaign for Dobson commissioner. He was appointed in February after former commissioner Stan Newman was hired as a Surry County codes enforcement officer. Newman felt it would be a conflict of interest and stepped down from his post.

Atkins served as the town manager for 20 years, and as manager for the Dobson ABC store for 11 years. He taught high school business classes for two years and served in the U.S. Army for two years.

He and his wife, Glenda, have two children, Emily and Neil, and four grandchildren.

He said he decided to run for office because of his experience in town government.

“I’m retired. I’ve been here all my life. I like the town, I like the people. If I can help, I certainly will,” Atkins said.

He said if elected, he would listen to the public, work on downtown beautification and economic development.

“Hopefully the economy is going to get better. We hope that some grants will come through for the downtown area. We will certainly take advantage of all the tourists coming to the area,” Atkins said.

Atkins could not be reached last night for a comment on his win.

Lawson, 58, won the seat formerly held by Clarence Collins, who died on Oct. 27 after an extended illness.

“I’m just humbled and honored that the voters here would pick me to represent them. I will do my best to represent their wishes,” Lawson said following the election Tuesday night.

Lawson has been a district manager for Lance Snack Food Company for 26 years. He has lived in Dobson for 16 years. His wife, Charlotte, is a director at Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, and he has two sons, Jonathan and Curry.

Lawson said he wanted to run for office because he wanted to have an influence on the town board.

Before the election, he said his top three priorities if elected were building a park, getting the residents more involved in the town and working on traffic issues.

Lawson said he wanted to be on the town board because he was raised to be a servant.

“I have no personal agendas. I am doing it to serve. That’s the way I was raised in my church. We’re here on earth to serve each other. I feel I have some good ideas and I will represent all people, the citizens, not just certain ones,” Lawson said.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.