BELVILLE — In an effort to save money and encourage more voter participation, Belville’s elected leaders voted to amend its charter to hold its town elections during even years. It also approved to extend the mayoral term.
The mayor and three commissioners voted unanimously, absent Ryan Merrill, to change the mayor’s term limits from two to four years. They also hope by moving elections to even years, which hosts more voters during the presidential and midterm elections, more people will participate in municipal voting.
Most municipalities in North Carolina host odd-year elections, according to the State Board of Elections. There are at least 14 municipalities in the state who have municipal elections during even years, including Bolivia. Like Belville, Bolivia recently changed its schedule for municipal elections last September; the change went into effect mid-October after being adopted by the North Carolina General Assembly.
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In order for its charter to be changed, the General Assembly must approve Belville’s amendment. The resolution will be introduced by Brunswick County state representative, Frank Iler, on April 13, according to Belville Mayor Chuck Bost.
The change was prompted due to Belville’s low voter turnout during local elections, as 1,410 residents are registered out of 3,691 people living in Belville. However, only 271 people voted for the mayor and a little more than 200 for both commissioners on the 2025 municipal ballots.
The town paid about $3,500 to conduct the election. By rolling municipal elections into an even-numbered, and potentially larger, election year it could save the town money. The county would shoulder the majority of the cost of election administration.
Port City Daily reached out to the Brunswick County Board of Elections to inquire about administration costs for Belville and the savings it could provide by moving the municipal election but did not hear back by press.
Bost said residents also experience voter fatigue from going to the polls too frequently — a common refrain he heard on the campaign trail last year.
“They were like: ‘Every time I turn around, there’s an election,’” he said. “They say, ‘I didn’t even know anybody was running until I started seeing campaign signs come up.’”
Elected in November 2025, Bost told Port City Daily he has thought about increasing the mayoral term limit since he became a commissioner a decade ago. He believes the current limit does not allow ample time to enact real change.
“A two-year term, you have one year as a mayor to do something,” Bost explained Tuesday, “and then all of a sudden, you gotta go start campaigning again.”
Habitual campaigning also proves expensive for candidates. Bost said his recent campaign cost about $10,000.
“I’m a retired cop, and I don’t make a lot in this position,” he said, “so it starts adding up.”
Not to mention, every-two-year campaigns can be “distracting” and deter from important town business. Bost said moving the terms could free up elected officials to dedicate more time getting work done.
In Belville, it includes major development, such as making headway on its downtown, currently contracted to Urban Smart Growth. Bost also wants to get the ball rolling on new municipal complexes, including a post office and fire department, planned for a recent Blackwell Road land purchase.
Bost said he first considered term-limit changes six years ago, but a motion was never introduced. While discussions were had, other action items came up in the meantime, pushing the amendment to the back burner.
“I think the reason why we didn’t do anything [in the past] is because the former mayor liked campaigning,” Bost said. “He liked going out there.”
Mayor Mike Allen passed away unexpectedly in July 2025 and served seven terms leading the town. Belville doesn’t have term limits for mayor.
Bost has served as mayor pro tem twice, 2011 to 2013 and 2019 until 2025, before being appointed as mayor after Allen’s passing. He officially won the November 2025 election against Nia Moore.
The mayoral term limit increase will also be introduced to the General Assembly by Iler, at the same time as the even-year election amendment.
Bost introduced the proposal to the commissioners immediately following last year’s election, but getting in touch with representatives and beginning the bureaucratic process took longer than anticipated.
“Priorities of the town are not always priorities of the state,” he said. “The state has a lot of things to deal with — they just had the hurricane that came through the western part and are dealing with passing the budget.”
Should the General Assembly approve term expansions, all commissioners and the mayor will serve four years. However, terms for Lee Alexander and Morgan Mehler that are set to end in 2027 will be extended to 2028 to align with the even-year change. Commissioners Merrill and Hunter Smith will have terms end in 2030 instead of 2029.
Bost expects some criticism, he said, noting the proposed change was already called a “power grab” by an unnamed political opponent. He denied as much is true.
“We’ve had some citizens in favor of this,” Commissioner Smith said at the meeting. “As a board, I know we’re in favor of this.”
No member of the public was present at the Tuesday meeting to speak in regards to the change.
Town leaders in Belville are not the first to consider a mayoral term expansion. Leland passed a similar resolution in 2018, pushing theirs to every four years to align with the commissioners’ term limit.
[Ed. note: The piece has been updated to change the photo.]
Tips or comments? Email Emily Sawaked at [email protected]
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