Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990                   TAG: 9004290196
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTEREY                                LENGTH: Medium

NO MUDSLINGING HERE; IT'S A NO-BALLOT TOWN

There are no speeches, no polls, no rallies, no scandals, no mudslinging - and no ballots with names. Local leaders are elected by write-in votes.

The Monterey ballot has been blank since World War II except for 1980, when a local lawyer bucked tradition and ran for mayor. He won but later moved out of town.

Most folks like things this way. It takes partisan politics out of town affairs, Mayor G.E. McWhorter Jr. said. Those elected "are out for the best interests of Monterey, not a political party."

P. Lea Campbell Jr., publisher of the local weekly, The Recorder, said the system eliminates lengthy campaigns.

"I think we are all exhausted, on the national level, by overkill in the political system. This is underkill," he said. "The fatal flaw is, there is no dialogue or debate."

But most people know their neighbors' opinions anyway. Before each election, the grapevine will carry "trains of thought" about the qualifications of potential officeholders, said Jean McWhorter, the mayor's wife. "The person who gets most of these trains of thought gets elected," she said.

In the last election, in 1988, 63 of the town's 152 registered voters voted for 50 different people for the six council seats. Six people got votes for mayor. McWhorter won in a landslide, 49 to four for his nearest competitor.

But the increased paperwork is a pain for Highland County Registrar Irene C. McAllister.

"It's ridiculous," she said. "I tried to talk the mayor and the others into filing, but they think it's a unique thing and want to leave it the way it is."