Incumbent Randy Orwig and newcomer Steve Exum were elected to the Elon town council, winning 31.97% and 39.88% of the vote, respectively, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Michael Ratigan, the third candidate in the town council race, received 27.17% of the vote.

Emily Sharpe, current town of Elon mayor, won her unopposed reelection bid with 98.18% of the vote.

Exum and Sharpe spent Election Day sitting outside the First Baptist Church of Elon as residents cast their votes Nov. 4. Exum expressed that getting to interact with voters in person helped him connect with his neighbors and meet new people.

“It’s not like a campaign where you’re running for a district and a majority of people don’t know you personally, they just know of you,” Exum said. “A lot of these people knew me, and I got a lot of good responses. I felt like it was a fun, celebratory unfolding of the day as a new friend would come up, or someone I had worked for or worked with. That small town vibe is pretty satisfying.”

According to Exum, a current concern he heard from voters was the PARC development, set to bring around 1,000 new housing units to the town of Elon.

“We had a few people stop and talk about the development north of town and how that’s being managed,” Exum said. “Some worry about the changing nature of the small town and what that would mean.”

The town council also recently purchased a new building to relocate the Elon Town Hall and Elon Police Department, and has been developing and expanding downtown Elon for several years.

“Development is on a lot of people’s minds,” Sharpe said. “As the town is growing and we are seeing more development than what we had in a really long time, I think that our voters just want to make sure that we’re doing it in a really smart and strategic way.”

Elon resident Lamont Tyson shared his confidence in the mayor and town council as he cast his vote at the First Baptist Church of Elon on Nov. 4.

“The leadership of the mayor in Elon has been excellent,” Tyson said. “She kind of motivated my family to get more involved in different things in Elon. And I’ve liked what she’s done to try to retain Elon students and make the city a little bit more comparable for all ages, not just the older folk.”

Another voter, Bailey Paul, voiced her approval of the town of Elon’s sustainability efforts. She also emphasized the importance of local elections, as they have a direct impact on everyday services like education and roads.

“We just want to keep the town sustainable, and we want to keep our schools, especially the elementary school my son is at, as good as it is,” Paul said. “The town is doing a great job taking care of it, and we want it to stay that way.”

Prior to Election Day, Exum focused much of his campaign on sustainability in Elon. He talked to Elon News Network about his personal choices to reduce his environmental impact such as owning electric vehicles, tracking water usage and installing solar panels on his home. Exum hopes to apply some of these strategies to the town of Elon.

“I’d like to see solar panels on any municipally owned building that it makes sense, you know, if you don’t have tree blockage and a clear exposure to the path of the sun,” Exum said. “Then once it’s there, I’d like for the town to sponsor, almost like open houses, to discuss solar energy.”

Orwig also prioritized sustainability through his term on town council. According to Orwig, rising costs are often a concern for voters, but sometimes cannot be avoided. The town of Elon purchases water from the city of Burlington, which means that the Elon Town Council has little control over price fluctuations.

Orwig also oversees the Sustainability Committee, tasked with incorporating sustainability measures into town operations.

“When I came in, I was concerned about water,” Orwig said. “There may be some developments — I found out that there’s very little we can do right now, but there could be some windows of opportunity that I’m going to pursue in this next term. And then secondly, was the sustainability operations that we’re doing at the town with the Sustainability Committee, and I really would like to continue that.”

Taxes were also on voters’ minds. Alamance County increased property taxes as part of the 2025-26 budget passed on June 16, but the town of Elon opted to keep property taxes constant in its 2025-26 budget passed on June 10.

“With the last real estate revaluation in the county, the values of homes went up, and when the value of someone’s home goes up, the amount that they pay in real estate tax also goes up,” Sharpe said. “While the town lowered our tax rate with that revaluation, the amount that homeowners were paying did go up. Especially for people that are on a fixed income, like retirees or people who are on social security or disability, that can be really hard for them because their income doesn’t always go up enough to cover a higher amount of taxes.”

Elon University and the Twin Lakes retirement community, both located in the town of Elon, are designated as nonprofit organizations and are exempt from state and local taxes, according to the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. The resulting lack of funds from these large nontaxable entities was a major topic of discussion at the town council candidate forum on Oct. 21, where Sharpe said Twin Lakes and Elon University provide ongoing annual contributions to the town.

Orwig said he would consider other avenues of funding to make up for the difference in taxes.

“You can talk all you want, but the truth of the matter is that there’s a very limited range that we can do,” Orwig said. “But we’ll keep trying to do the things we can and keep working on them. I’m hoping that we can build the capacity to get grants — although that’s a very uphill battle — but we want to create a lot more sidewalks, and basically the ability for people to get around town and do things.”

Sharpe assured that any changes in tax rates would be for the benefit of residents in the town. She also added that the new PARC developments will bring in more residents and sales revenue to help boost the budget.

“We want to maintain what we have, and we want to take care of what we have,” Sharpe said. “While we will have more revenue coming in in the future when new houses are built, our costs are still going to go up, and so I do anticipate that taxes will go up in the next couple of years. I have not been shy to share that with people.”

Exum, Orwig and Sharpe are scheduled to be sworn in on Dec. 9.