In Sharon: Electing on a first-name basis

Western York County voters, candidates are neighbors — even kin

By Andrew Dys, Columnist - The Herald

SHARON -- The dew still sat wet on the grass at 8:30 a.m. on Election Day in little Sharon, and already 20 people in this western York County town of 257 registered voters had voted.

The write-in candidate for mayor voted, and her husband, too. The daughter of the current mayor seeking re-election had voted before rushing off to work.

A bunch of others came early too, including many who knew the candidates for mayor and the four seats on the Town Council, or who lived down the street from the candidates, or were related by blood or marriage.

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

The issues in this little place that had a bank robbery last year in the only bank in town and gave up one of the bays at the volunteer fire station for an important ambulance that could save a neighbor are quality of life, safety, safety — and safety. The mayor's race had the incumbent versus a write-in. Winner take all.

“The mayor, I'm kin to her,” said Helen Good, who has spent 63 of her many more than that years living in this little town of 421. Good couldn't walk inside, so she voted curbside, right from the passenger seat of a car with the help of poll worker Lowry Russell.

“And Johnny Bob, I've known him for years. I had to vote for him, too.”

Johnny Bob is Johnny Bob Barnette — one of two incumbents on the four-member council vying for re-election in a field of five candidates, plus a write-in. The top four vote getters get on council; the last two don't.

Johnny Bob also is known as Billy Bob, a name which voters called out at least a dozen times Tuesday. Spend 44 years with the volunteer fire department, live all your 62 years around the same folks, people know you as Billy Bob. Or Johnny Bob.

Except Billy Bob wasn't there to hear his name called. He's retired, and he said on the telephone that he had to work his retirement job on the afternoon shift at a county recycling center. But his cousin was there to hear the Barnette name.

"Lived here all my life, 69 years; I know 'bout everybody and they know me," voter Henry James Barnette said. First cousin to Johnny Bob. "That's what small-town life is like. People know each other, look after each other."

Into the parking lot swung a young guy named Robert Kropp. He took a last drag on a Maverick cigarette, took a pull on his Mountain Dew and stepped inside to vote.

Inside, the poll workers who know everybody asked for a photo ID because that is the law, although everybody knew everybody else by sight or name or both.

"Looks more like his momma than his daddy," called out poll worker Mary Bankhead, who knew people's names, what hats they normally wear, where they lived, what their daddy drives and other juicy tidbits in such a small place where the only secret might be underwear color.

"Gotta vote for my daddy," Robert Kropp said. His father is Donald Kropp, trying for his first term on the Town Council. "Kind of surreal, strange, to go vote for your own father. Guess that's what being in Sharon is all about."

Also on the ballot for council was Jerry Bradham, on the fire department, and his son-in-law, Jeff Ramsey, on the fire department. And a lady named Kathy Montgomery, who had come to vote to try to keep her council seat after working until 3 in the afternoon at a filtration plant.

"I'm her husband, and I was on the council myself for a time," said Rick Montgomery, who sat and talked among the poll workers and voters for a while. He wore his "I voted" sticker on his John Deere ball cap.

There is no rush in Sharon after casting a ballot. Voting is not just civic duty; it is community. It is asking about aches and pains, telling stories about neighbors, giving a little bit of yourself to turn a town into a community.

"I been on the fire department with Jerry and Jeff for years, know them well and like them well," Rick Montgomery said. "Been here all my life."

Doug and Maria Cunningham came in to vote. Newcomers of just three years to Sharon, they know Kropp the candidate � so they came to vote for him.