TJ Times-Journal | Superintendent Runoff Too Close to Call
Superintendent Runoff Too Close to Call
By Huck Treadwell | TJ-Times Journal | March 14, 2012
Voters won’t know if there is a Democratic runoff for DeKalb County Board of Education Superintendent until Wednesday.
Probate Judge Ronnie Osborn said provisional ballots won’t be counted until Wednesday. In the race between Ed Burke, Jason Mayfield and Bill Monroe, Monroe ended up with 49.34 percent of the total ballots cast. Osborn said Monroe needed 16 more votes to win the Democratic nomination without a runoff.
“It’s too close to call for a runoff because of the provisional ballots,” Osborn said. “It’s possible after counting the provisionals, there won’t be a runoff. We won’t know until next Wednesday when we count the provisionals. We’ll know at noon.”
Monroe was the leading vote getter with 1,126 votes followed by Burke with 600 and Mayfield with 556.
On the Republican side of the ticket, Hugh Taylor got 57.98 percent of the vote and beat Steve Street 3,040 to 2,203 to win the GOP nomination for superintendent.
On the final election tally, DeKalb County was listed as having 52 of 54 precincts reporting. Osborn said one of the missing precincts was the provisional ballots. The other missing precinct resulted from a voting box that was not used.
“That was Wills Valley Rec Center,” Osborn said. “They had two machines up there, and they didn’t turn one of them on. I pulled it today, and it had zero results. There were no ballots even scanned on it.”
In the Democratic presidential primary, President Barack Obama received 1,075 votes in DeKalb. But, there were 786 voters that were uncommitted and another 611 voters that didn’t choose to vote on the presidential ticket.
“That’s the ones that wanted to vote Democrat, but didn’t want to vote Obama” Osborn said. “They checked uncommitted. It’s kind of un-normal. There’s not usually that many Democrats that wanted to vote, but didn’t want to vote for Obama. The under-votes were unusual since there was only one person on the ballot.”
The Republican presidential primary was a little more spirited with Rick Santorum garnering 43.46 percent of the vote in DeKalb. He was the leading GOP candidate in DeKalb County with 3,149 votes. Newt Gingrich totaled 1,991 followed by Mitt Romney with 1,549. Santorum won the GOP nomination in Alabama with 35 percent of the vote.
While Osborn said the number of under-votes on a presidential ticket was unusual, it was surprising the same thing happened in both races for DeKalb Board of Education for Places 3 and 4.
In Place 3, Jeff Williams defeated incumbent Mary Etta Bailey 891 to 548. There were 124 under-votes. But, even if Bailey gained all the under-votes, it would not have been enough to swing the election in her favor.
However, in Place 4, Matt Sharp defeated incumbent Claude Callaham by a margin of 619-561. There were 136 under-votes, more than enough to give Callaham the edge in the election.
“It was kind of strange on the under-votes on Places 3 and 4,” Osborn said. “What that tells me is that people went to vote for superintendent but didn’t vote for their districts. That could have changed the results.”
On the national level, state Rep. Daniel Boman, of Sulligent, won the Democratic nomination in the 4th Congressional District race.
Boman defeated Rick Neighbors, of Franklin County, and will face Republican Congressman Robert Aderholt, of Haleyville, in November. Aderholt is seeking a ninth term representing north-central Alabama in the House.
Neighbors gathered 62.29 percent of the vote in DeKalb County.
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is a step closer to getting his old job back after he received a little more that 50 percent of the vote to win the Republican nomination, according to unofficial results Wednesday.
After a night of uncertainty, Moore had 50.37 percent, more than the 50 percent plus one vote that he needed to avoid a runoff with either of his challengers, former Attorney General Charlie Graddick or current Chief Justice Chuck Malone.
Moore won in a landslide in DeKalb County with 65.08 percent of the vote.
Moore was ousted from the chief justice position in 2003 for refusing a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
In the GOP Supreme Court Place 1 race, Tommy Bryan defeated Debra Jones by garnering 65 percent of the statewide vote. In DeKalb, Bryan also had the most votes with 3,553 to Jones’ 1,625.
The race for state Public Service Commission president will advance to a runoff. Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh received 246,297 votes statewide and 2,662 in DeKalb County. She will face Chip Brown, who received 134,060 votes. Brown finished last in the field of three candidates in DeKalb County with 1,406 votes. The winner will face PSC President Lucy Baxley, a rare Democrat among state leaders, in November.
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