Robert Wayne Lilley was elected to a seat on the Pantego Board of Commissioners by getting the most write-in votes.

Lilley received 10 write-in votes, according to Beaufort County Board of Elections figures. Mayor Stuart Ricks and incumbent board members Chad Keech, Mart Benson, Chuck Williams and Reid Michael Gelderman each received 23 votes to retain their seats.

Vote totals from Tuesday’s elections are unofficial. The mayor’s seat and all five board seats were up for election this year. Municipal elections in Beaufort County are nonpartisan.

“I had a bunch of friends who ‘nominated’ me, who wanted me to do it and though I would be the right person to do it,” Lilley said Tuesday night.

“I think it’s a great community. I love living here. I just want to do my part and everything I can to make it a better community,” he said.

Ricks believes he and the other board members will work well with Lilley.

“It will be good to have somebody from the other end of town on the board,” Ricks said. “There are four of us right here on the same street. It will be good to have someone scattered in a different part of town. … Robert’s just a hard-working, good guy. I think he will be a pretty good asset for us.”

Lilley’s latest voter registration on July 17 lists him as unaffiliated when it comes to a political party. Lilley owns High Tech Repair Services, which performs auto, farm and machine repairs.

A qualified write-in candidate was assured of filling the vacancy on the board created by the death of Robert Edwards, who died Aug. 3 after filing for re-election. That death resulted in the filing period for candidates for that board being extended for five working days, from Aug. 5 to Aug. 12, but no one filed.

During its meeting August meeting, the Beaufort County Board of Elections decided not to reopen the filing period again, which is allowed under state law. Elections Director Kellie Harris Hopkins recommended to the board that it not extend the filing period. By not extending the filing, the board opened the door for write-in candidates to compete for a seat on the Pantego board, Hopkins noted.

For a write-in candidate to take office, he or she must meet all eligibility requirements for that office. In this case, that means qualified write-in candidates must come from the 112 registered voters (as of Oct. 8) in Pantego, according to Hopkins.

The town’s mayor and council members serve two-year terms.

The Beaufort County Board of Elections will conduct its canvass of ballots at 11 a.m. Tuesday. That’s when it will review provisional ballots and vote totals from each precinct.

For a voter whose registration status is not immediately clear when he or she arrives at a polling place to mark ballots, that person is given provisional ballots. Later, the Board of Elections determines if that person is a qualified registered voter. If so, the ballot is counted. If not, the ballot is not counted.

The vote totals are unofficial until the Nov. 10 canvassing by the Beaufort County Board of Elections.