Lincoln County reelected Sheriff Roby Bowe with nearly 41 percent of the votes Tuesday, despite a strong showing from write-in candidate Darren Short and challenger Bill Clark. 

Bowe received 2,925 votes, 40.8 percent of the total cast, compared to 1,987, or 27.7 percent, for Clark. There were 2,250 write-in ballots cast as well, representing 31.4 percent of the total. While not every write-in vote was for Short, about 99 percent of those ballots listed one of the 70 registered spellings of his name.

Short expressed his disappointment with the final tally. 

“I’m bummed, of course,” Short said. “But we knew going in that a write-in campaign was a long shot.” 

Short filed as a write-in candidate after his friend and former partner in law enforcement, Duane Rhodes, was defeated in the primary.

Write-in campaigns, while fairly common, rarely generate the level of support and participation Short’s campaign garnered. He raised more money than the incumbent, Bowe, but less than challenger Clark. Short received more votes than Clark, but finished second.

Short feels the people of Lincoln County deserve a full-time sheriff accountable to the people of the county. With that in mind, he has already determined he will file to run again in 2018.

Bowe appeared exhausted from the campaign, but said that he was honored to be elected to another term. His goals for the department are to provide better service to the people of Lincoln County and to build upon the community relationships the department has developed. He also expressed his commitment that the department is “transparent in everything that we do.”

Bowe ran a low-key campaign, especially relative to the other candidates. He explained he made the decision early on in the race to let the department’s record do the campaigning for him. 

“I’m just not a politician,” Bowe said.

In response to criticism that he doesn’t spend enough time in the office, Bowe was very direct. 

“I’m just not that kind of sheriff,” he said. “I need to be out in the communities, out meeting people, in order to do the job.”

As for plans in 2018, Bowe smiled slyly. 

“I definitely have some ambitions, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

Repeated attempts to contact Clark by phone, email and Facebook message were unsuccessful.