SMITH CENTER (HNS) -- When Trey Joy describes his run for mayor, it sounds more like a jog. Perhaps even a walk.

"I just kind of went around, and if someone asked me about it, I talked to them," said Joy, 19. "I put a couple things in the local newspaper."

Joy decided to put his name in only because the filing deadline came and went and nobody had declared himself a candidate.

But the low-key campaign was enough to get Joy, who graduated from high school last year, elected mayor to this town of 1,663, located in Smith County at the intersection of U.S. highways 36 and 281. He defeated Keith Waldron, the other write-in candidate, 152 to 87.

Joy was sworn in Thursday night and presided over his first city council meeting. The council voted to give $500 to a nonprofit and made some library board appointments.

Youthfulness hasn't been Smith County's calling card in recent years. It has the distinction of having the state's highest percentage of residents 65 or older (28 percent). That's also one of the highest in the nation: of the 3,141 counties in the United States, only 18 have a higher percentage.

And there are only three Kansas counties (Gove, Wichita and Lane) that have a smaller percentage of 18-to-24-year-olds than Smith County.

But the Joys' roots are deep here.

"My family's been in Smith County since the 1800s," he said.

The Smith Center High School Class of 2008 was just 37 students, but it included Joys -- Trey and his twin brother, Drew, who is attending Sterling College on a football scholarship. Some people still get the brothers mixed up: the county clerk told Trey that some of the write-ins were for Drew Joy.

Trey lives with his grandmother, is pursuing an associate's degree through online classes offered by Fort Hays State University, and is selling life insurance. (His father and grandfather were killed in an automobile accident in 1997.)

He was active in student government while in high school, representing the student council in his junior and senior years.

"My high school government teacher was a really good teacher," he said. It's what sparked his interest in politics.

Some of the things he'd like to see are more wind energy in the area and a town that's cleaner.

"I don't know if that's up to the city, but I'd like to see it either way," he said.

Oh, and lower taxes, he added with a laugh.

"Any politician says that."