On December 5, three of the five County Commissioners for Transylvania County, North Carolina, said they are changing their registration from Republican to independent. They are David Guice, Mike Hawkins, and Page Lemel. See this story.
Hawkins and Lemel are up for re-election in 2020, so if they intend to run for another term, they will need a difficult petition to get on the ballot, 4% of the number of registered voters.
The other two commissioners continue to be registered Republicans. Thanks to David Gillespie for the link.
There were two credible independent candidates in 2018. It appears that 4% is between 800 and 1000 voters, depending if inactive voters are counted in the base.
Two or three commissioners are elected to four year terms at alternate elections. Three will be elected in 2020. Since the announcement, a Republican and a Democrat have filed, making three Republicans and one Democrat with two weeks left.
In 2008 there were three Republicans and three Democrats, with a 49 vote margin between the 3rd place Republican and 1st place Democrat. The last Democrat candidate was in 2014.
The article mentions that 6000 skipped the commissioners race in 2016. In that year, there were three Republicans running unopposed for three positions. It is pretty arrogant to suggest that voters were ignoring the election rather than voting for me me me.
Generally, there have been contested Republican primaries trimming off a candidate or two.
In 2016, the legislature passed a bill that switched the Transylvania County schoolboard to partisan elections. The bill was sponsored by a representative from Transylvania (and incidentally a former school board member). The entire county school board was opposed to the bill, and apparently not consulted.