Elections bring new faces, runoffs

Although most cities and towns statewide held elections, Headland, Newville and Napier Field were among a handful of communities that did not hold elections since no one qualified to oppose the incumbents. Also, Dothan holds its election in odd-numbered years and the next local election is set for August 2021.

Across the Wiregrass, voting turnout varied with some election officials seeing both low and better than average participation.

The following are vote totals available at press time Tuesday night. For updated results, check Dothan.eagle.com.

Coffee County:

Runoffs are set for the Enterprise mayor’s race and the race for city council District 3.

Bill Baker will challenge incumbent Bill Cooper in the mayoral election. Cooper was the leading vote-getter with an unofficial 1,644 votes. Baker was next with 939, followed by Lister Reeves 886 and Perry Vickers 709.

Incumbent Sonya Rich in District 1 won reelection over Reiders White, Jr., and Jerrold Whitehurst, and District 2 incumbent Eugene Goolsby defeated LaQuilla Stoudmire.

In District 3, a place vacated by Council President Vickers, Les Hogan and Greg Padgett qualified for a runoff. Hogan had 419 votes, unofficially, to Padgett’s 322. Danny O Bradley was net with 145, followed by James Brown with 139.

In Elba, only five votes separated mayoral candidates Tom Maddox, 283, and Tim Johnson, 278. Chelsea Cooper finished third with 142 votes.

Dale County:

In Ozark, Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship was leading incumbent Mayor Bob Bunting in the mayor’s race with 1,379 votes to 1,096, respectively. Challengers Chadwick Crews received 566 votes and Dion Robinson received 182.

Additionally, city council members Brenda Simechak, and Stanley Enfinger  kept their positions while council member Frank Garrett recieved 1,336 votes versus Leah Harlow, who took 1,063 votes.

Geneva County:

In Geneva County, there will be some new faces guiding the rural county’s cities and towns into the future, although in a few instances, outcomes are yet to be decided.

In Geneva, the city’s mayoral and District 7 council races are headed to a runoff as are council races in Hartford and Malvern.

Unofficial totals from Tuesday’s municipal election had no single candidate for Geneva mayor receiving the required 50% majority of votes to win outright.

David Hayes received the most votes with 457, or 39%, followed by Greg Adams with 383 votes, roughly 33%. John Hughes, the city’s current District 3 council member, received 331 votes. Hayes and Adams will more forward to the runoff election to fill the position currently held by Mayor Frankie Lindsey, who did not seek re-election.

In Geneva’s District 7 race, the three candidates finished within half a percentage point of each other and provisional ballots could still impact the outcome. If the unofficial totals hold up, candidate Mike Bryan, who received 71 votes, will face Daniel L. Coleman, who received 70 votes, in the runoff. Todd Mote received 69 votes.

Geneva’s other council races, while still unofficial, were decided Tuesday.

In Geneva’s District 1 race, incumbent Rufus Lee received 83 votes and Charlie Harris received 32 votes. District 2 incumbent Freddy McCoy received 129 votes while opponent Tashara Martinestz received 19 votes.

In the District 3 race, Kimberly Wesley Gillespie received 83 votes while Charles W. Fleming Jr. received 67 votes. District 4 incumbent Ryan Tidwell received 146 votes while opponents Jason Gerstner received 11 votes and Raymond Terry received 18.

District 5 incumbent Richard Bixby ran unopposed.

Geneva’s District 6 race saw Mike Fountain finish with 97 votes while Joe Buchinsky received one vote and Hobie L. Dixon received 43 votes.

In Hartford, two city council seats are headed to runoffs.

The District 2 council seat will be a runoff between Ted Thompson and Lester Williams Jr. In Tuesday’s election, Thompson received 51 votes and Williams received 40 votes. Two other candidates – Debbie Neal and Roy Smith – each received seven votes.

District 4 candidates Zane Fowler and Ashley Tate will go a runoff for that seat. Fowler received 75 votes while Tate received 74 votes. Incumbent Ken Hales received 35 votes and candidate Trey Enfinger received 21 votes.

The remaining Hartford council seats and the mayor’s race had clearer winners.

Neil Strickland received 402 votes to Mayor Wendel Nolen’s 177 votes. In the city’s District 1 race, Melissa Clements received 61 votes while Larry Hillard Sr. received 36 votes. And in District 4, Paul Blount received 59 votes while Brandon Watford received 51 votes.

In the at-large Slocomb council race, Place 1 incumbent Tony Davis received 420 votes while challenger Scotty Shelton received 94 votes. Place 2 incumbent Joe T. Myles won with 268 votes to Nicky Devane, who received 244 votes. Don White won the Place 4 seat with 280 votes to Lisa Sconiers’ 229 votes. And in Place 5, the incumbent Travis J. Garrett received 333 votes while his opponent Tim Hatcher received 171 votes.

Slocomb Mayor Rob Hinson and Place 3 councilmember Henley Hicks were unopposed.

In Malvern, Mayor Tom Vickers won another term in office. Vickers received 152 votes. His opponent, Milton (Jimmy) Harris, received 122 votes.

The town’s at-large Place 5 town council seat will go to a three-way runoff on Oct. 6 as none of the three candidates received enough votes to win outright. Jasmine Robinson received 98 votes while Barbara Williams and James (Jamie) Conner each received 85 votes.

There was only one race in Samson on Tuesday to fill the Place 4 seat on the at-large city council. The seat became vacant after the death of council member Michael Miller.

In that race, Ed Janasky received 146 total votes and Heath Chancey received 42 votes.

Henry County:

In Abbeville, incumbent Mayor Billy Helms was beat by Jimmy Money and Greg Grimsley. Helms received 116 votes; and Money received 352 voted. Giganti received 58 votes. Money and Grimsley qualified for a runoff election.

Additionally all five city council positions were also on the ballot, including:

District One: incumbent Terry Allums, 67; Dexter Glanton, 88

District Two: incumbent Brendt Murphy, 135; Lakilya Porter Carater, 80

District Three: incumbent Dorothy Baker, 49; Eddie Jones; 58

District Four: incumbent Rena Cosby, 34; Vince Feggins, 82

District Five: Jimmy Davis Jr., 80; Chris Pensinger, 39; and Betty Edge Yoder,37

Houston County:

Ashford

Mayor: incumbent Carole Barfield, 257; Gary Gibson,194

Place Two: incumbent Ronnie Whitehead, 256; Benji McWaters,186

Place Three: incumbent Alan Anderson, 254; Gerald Williams,172

Place Four: Terry Smith, 176; Blake Rosenkoetter, 258

Place Five: incumbent James Smith, 213; Richard Bolden,145; Jimmy Weems 65

Columbia

Mayor: incumbent Rhonda Freeman, 132; Jessie Ingram, 43; Robert Hunter 47

Cottonwood

Mayor: James Coachman,149; Garrett Lorton, 29

District Three: incumbent Linda Smith, 21; Jimmy Winsor, 8

District Four: Calvin Van Granger, 27; Grady Morris Adams, 16

Cowarts

Place One: Incumbent Jerry Rogers 97, Allen Hendrickson, 45

Rehobeth

Mayor: incumbent Joe Collins,37; Kimberly Trotter, 219

Taylor

Place One: Marcus Davis, 103; John Langley Tyson, 28

Place Two: Jerry Kelly, 92; Debbie Somma, 38

Barbour County:

In Eufaula, Jack B. Tibbs Jr. won his bid for a third term as Mayor of Eufaula Tuesday night, outdistancing challengers Sara Hamm by 331 votes and L.C. Green by 420.

The final voting tally had Tibbs with 480, followed by Hamm with 159 and Green 60.

Tibbs will have an entirely new city council when his new term begins Nov. 2.

There will be only one runoff, that in District 4 between John Wayne Robinson and Logan Mitchell.

Robinson received 307 votes, while Mitchell garnered 233. Kaloeb Morris missed the runoff with 128 votes.

Ben Garrison defeated incumbent Tony Robertson in District 1, 415-270.

Otis Hill defeated Jeff Robinson – both new candidates after President Johnny A. Knight chose not to seek re-election in District 2. Hill, who retired after 27 years with the Eufaula City Schools Board of Education, beat Robinson, 366-262.

Marvin Brown was the only candidate for District 3, which had been held by Lucious Cobbs. Cobbs decided not to seek re-election.

Wes Register defeated incumbent Barbara C. Flurry in District 5, 316-181, while Rosalind Skipper Rice finished third with 114.