Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Old traditions die hard, evident by the number of people who gathered in or just outside their vehicles on the sloped field opposite the old elections office on Dogwood Street to watch the results of the primary election posted on the electronic signboard on Tuesday evening, August 18.
Even though the canvassing board was at the new elections office on West Washington Street and the election results were being tabulated there, the numbers were being sent to the old location for posting on the board.|
Another notable development in this election was the increased number of mail-in votes, testament to the continuing pandemic and people’s concerns about contracting the disease by voting in person and coming in close contact with others.
Tuesday’s primary, as primaries do, winnowed the field of candidates to the few who will be going on to the general election in November, and locally in the case of the nonpartisan School Board, District 4 race, it determined a winner.
Incumbent Bill Brumfield, beat his challenger, Karen Purser, by 484 to 399 votes. A breakdown of the 883 total votes cast in this race shows 349 were cast on election day, 181 were by early vote, and 352 were votes by mail. Attorney Jessica Yeary unseated incumbent Andy Thomas. Locally, Yeary received 2,570 votes to Thomas’s 1,346 and sitting Judge Angela Dempsey bested her opponent Kevin Alvarez by taking 70 percent of the votes district-wide.
Republican newcomer Eydie Tricquet beat opponent Al Cooksey by 805 to 785 votes. Of the 1,590 total votes cast in this race, 792 were cast on election day, 419 were by early vote, and 379 were votes by mail.
On the Democratic side LaClarence Mays, beat his rival Glover Jones. Mays garnered 1,307 votes to Jones’s 1,098. Of the 2,405 total votes cast in this race, 992 were cast on election day, 331 were by early vote, and 1,081 were votes by mail.
Tricquet and Mays now must face incumbent Marianne Arbulu, a No Party Affiliation (NPA) candidate, in the November general election.
Democratic nominee, Ben Ransom Jr., beat opponent C. P. Miller by 295 to 274 votes. Of the 569 total votes cast in this race, 229 were cast on election day, 94 were by early vote, and 246 were votes by mail.
Ransom must now face Republican incumbent J. T. Surles in the November general election.
In the Congressional, District 5 race, incumbent Al Lawson beat his two Democratic opponents, Albert Chester and LaShonda Holloway, to win his party’s nomination. Lawson received 1,181 votes, compared with 314 for Chester and 195 for Holloway. A total of 2,350 votes were cast in this race, 951 were cast on election day, 341 by early vote, and 1,057 were votes by mail. Lawson must now face Gary Adler, his Republican opponent in November.
Although Adler wasn’t the favorite in Jefferson County, he won the overall Republican nomination. Adler received 546 votes locally to Republican opponent Roger Wagoner’s 835 local votes. But overall in the district, Adler got 17,429 votes to Wagoner’s 16,004.
Of the total 1,381 votes cast locally in this race, 653 were cast on election day, 393 were by early vote, and 335 were votes by mail.
In the race for the State Senate, District 3 seat, long held by term-limited Democratic Senator Bill Montford, the Republican nominee is Marva Harris Preston, who easily beat her Repbulican opponent Benjamin Alexander Horbowy both at the local level and district-wide. Preston received 1,273 votes locally to Horbowy’s 308 votes.
Of the 1,581 total votes cast locally in this race, 783 were cast on election day, 418 were by early vote, and 380 were by mail.
Preston must now face Democratic candidate Loranne Ausley in the November election.
Tiffany Baker and Amanda Wall emerged the two top candidates and now face a runoff. In a multiple-candidate race such as this one was, a candidate must get more than 50 percent of the votes to win, which neither Baker nor Wall did.
All told, 4,340 of Jefferson County’s 9,925 registered voters participated in the primary, making for a 43.73 percent turnout.