Charles Blackwood seals Orange County Sheriff nomination

The Orange County Sheriff Democratic primary runoff election came to a close finish when candidates Charles Blackwood and David Caldwell Jr. faced off on Tuesday night.

The two received the most votes out of six sheriff candidates during the primary elections in May, but neither received the required 40 percent to avoid a runoff. But this time, a majority of more than 50 percent was enough to take the primary.

According to unofficial election results, Blackwood won with 53 percent and a margin of only 540 votes.

The candidates both said they worked hard to get to where they were, working all the way up to election day to mobilize voters.

“I’ve done about everything in one day that I’ve done in the last six months,” Caldwell said.

Blackwood said he had been out to every corner of the county to meet with voters to ensure his victory.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do when I wake up and don’t have people to visit anymore,” he said.

One of the obstacles for the candidates was getting voters out to polling sites. Both Caldwell and Blackwood expressed the need to mobilize voters — a need demonstrated when only 9 percent of voters in Orange County cast ballots.

After the election, he said the voter turnout was only a little higher than what he expected.

“We did pick up a little more support from the Chapel Hill area than we thought we would,” Blackwood said.

He said the sheriff’s position will be a huge undertaking, but he was confident he could take it on with the people who had supported him to that point. He also said it was important to expand to those who weren’t behind him during the runoff.

“We begin to build bridges with the people that did not support us or did not have faith and trust in us enough to come out and vote for us,” Blackwood said.

He said it was important to reach common ground with those who didn’t support him and work toward resolutions.

But Caldwell said just because he lost the election doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his work cut out for him.

“We still have a lot of work to do, and it can be done outside of the sheriff’s department,” he said. “We still have a lot of people who need help.”

Blackwood said he knew where his victory came from, and he thanked the people of Orange County for their support.

Caldwell said he was determined to continue his work helping the community, whether it was solving environmental issues, providing water and sewage or helping children stay away from drugs and gangs. He spoke out to his supporters to say this isn’t the end of his involvement.

“Don’t think of this as a stumbling block, think of it as a stepping stone,” Caldwell said.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.