DOBSON — The cost of democracy is sometimes open to debate, but for a Mount Airy mayoral primary on Oct. 6, its price could be $10,000.

Mount Airy is the only municipality in Surry County that conducts primaries, which are held when more than two candidates seek a particular office. In the case of the 2009 mayor’s election, four people threw their hats into the ring during a recent filing period: Gene Clark, Deborah Cochran, Paul Eich and Teresa Lewis.

That field of candidates resulted from an earlier decision by incumbent Mayor Jack Loftis not to seek another four-year term this year.

The two top vote-getters in the Oct. 6 primary will square off against each other in the general election on Nov. 3, and the winner will be the city’s next mayor.

But the primary will represent an extra expense to Mount Airy apart from what the general election will cost.

“We have already figured between $8,000 and $10,000 for just the primary,” Angie Harrison, deputy director of the Surry County Board of Elections, said Wednesday.

“We’re still negotiating with the city about the one-stop (voting) site, whether that will be offered during the primary,” added Harrison, who explained that the county Board of Elections is required to offer one-stop voting. It allows citizens to register and vote the same day. But Mount Airy officials must decide if they want to provide that special service for the primary.

The $8,000 to $10,000 tally for the primary as it stands now will cover the cost of about 20 to 25 precinct workers who will man five voting precincts where citizens will cast ballots for mayoral hopefuls.

Those include the Mount Airy No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 precincts. Citizens in Mount Airy No. 8 and No. 9 will cast ballots at a combined precinct at Faith Baptist Church during the primary, due to a relatively small number of in-city voters included in both. Less than 800 total municipal voters reside in those precincts based on the latest registration totals.

Mount Airy now has 7,092 registered voters in all.

No Dobson Primary

Mount Airy adopted the primary method in 1995 when the city’s elections became non-partisan, and political-party labels were discarded.

A municipality can choose one of four election methods.

One is the non-partisan with plurality method, meaning all the candidates run during the general election, with no primary held beforehand.

Another is partisan elections with a primary, while a third is non-partisan with a primary, which has happened four times in Mount Airy since the city selected that method.

The fourth is non-partisan with a runoff, which allows a second election to be held if one candidate does not secure a clear majority in the first. In those cases, a runner-up candidate can request a second election pitting the two top vote-getters against each other if the winner fails to secure at least 50 percent of the votes.

In contrast to Mount Airy, the election this year in Dobson will include six candidates vying for two commissioner seats in November, with no primary held beforehand.

While Mount Airy’s charter now requires a primary, “of course, the commissioners could change that,” Harrison said of future elections.

When Mount Airy last conducted a primary in October 2007, 17 percent of the electorate journeyed to the polls for an election that cost about $8,000. In that primary, Scott Lowry finished first in a three-way race for the city’s at-large commissioner seat against Cochran and Twyla Sickmiller.

But Lowry lost to Cochran when the two went head to head in the general election in November of that year.

The voter-registration period for the upcoming primary closes on Sept. 11.

“Now that the wheels are set in motion to have the primary, I do hope the folks will come out and vote,” Harrison said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.