SKOWHEGAN — Former game warden Lloyd Trafton of West Forks was in the lead in the race for the new District 5 seat on the board of Somerset County commissioners in unofficial tallies Tuesday night.
Trafton, 65, had 792 votes, with not all towns reporting. Andrew Davis, 56, of Solon, had 508 votes. Stephen C. Coleman, of Dennistown Plantation, who had been a candidate, died last month in a drowning accident.
The top vote-getter will represent Athens, Bingham, Brighton Plantation, Cambridge, Caratunk, Concord Township, Dennistown Plantation, Harmony, Jackman, Moose River, Moscow, Pleasant Ridge Plantation, Ripley, St. Albans, Solon, The Forks, West Forks and the unorganized territories of Central Somerset, Northeast Somerset, Seboomook Lake Township and Northwest Somerset, except Lexington Township.
In the newly formed District 3, candidate Robin Frost, 61, was in the lead over Shane Reitze, 40, both of Palmyra, with just two towns reporting, 348 to 184.
The winner will represent Canaan, Detroit, Hartland, Palmyra and Pittsfield.
Elections for the other districts will begin in 2012.
A new five-member board takes effect Jan. 1, based on the county charter passed by voters in 2010. The board currently has three districts and three county commissioners.
In early tabulations for the Somerset County charter amendment, a yes vote on the proposed amendment was leading  4,073 to 2,386.
Under the charter change, if approved by voters, each regularly elected commissioner will serve a term of four years instead of the current three years. The term of office is effective from the first day of January following the commissioners’ election. The initial term of office for the commissioner representing Districts 1 and 2 will expire Dec. 31, 2012. The initial term of office for the commissioner representing Districts 3, 4 and 5 will expire on Dec. 31, 2014.