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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
Dickson Farrior and Carnell McAlpine won reelection to their respective Lowndes County Commission seats Tuesday night, as did Lowndes County School Board member Steve Foster.
The only casualty among local office incumbents in the 2016 Democratic Primary in Lowndes County was County Commission Brenson Crenshaw Sr.
With unofficial totals, only lacking provisional ballots to be counted next week, Carnell McAlpine narrowly defeated Charlie King Jr. 689 votes to 636 for County Commission District 2; Dickson Farrior defeated Karl K. Bell with 688 votes to 495 for County Commission District 5; Brenson Crenshaw Sr. lost to Joshua “Mole” Simmons by 19 votes, 418 to 399; and Steve Foster defeated Minnie Peterson 266 votes to 158.
For Lowndes County Board of Education District Three, Donald J. Carter qualified and won in the Democratic Primary for the position currently held by Annie C. Hunter because he was unopposed. His race did not appear on the ballot.
For District 2, District Attorney, incumbent Charlotte M. Tesmer qualified for the Democratic Primary, and William “Bill” Morgan Rayborn Jr. qualified for the Republican Primary. As they are unopposed in their respective parties, their race did not appear on primary ballots, but will appear in the general election.
Also in the Democratic Primary, Ella B. Bell out drew Joanne Shum 2,540 votes to 484 for State Board of Education District 5; Ron Crumpton outscored Charles Nana 1,194 votes to 774 for U.S. Senator; and Hillary Clinton outdrew Bernie Sanders 3,782 to 330 votes.
Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente received 17 votes, and Martin J. O’Malley drew 42 votes.
In a nonpartisan vote, Statewide Amendment One was favored in Lowndes County with 2,869 yes votes to 885 no votes.
In the Lowndes County Republican Primary Donald J. Trump out scored his opponents with 500 votes to 1 for Jeb Bush, 88 for Ben Carson, 0 for Chris Christie, 137 for Ted Cruz, 0 for Carly Fiorina, 0 for Lindsey Graham, 1 for Mike Huckabee, 26 for John R. Kasich, 1 for Rand Paul and 83 for Marco Rubio.
For U.S. Senator incumbent Richard C. Shelby outdrew his opponents 478 to 7 for Shadrack McGill, 241 for Jonathan McConnell, 19 for John Martin and 9 for Marcus Bowman.
For Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Place Number 3, Tom Parker led Donna J. Beaulieu 471 votes to 133 votes.
And for president of the public service commission, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh outdrew Terry Dun 540 to 180.
According to election results reported by the Lowndes County Probate Judge’s Office, 51.7 percent of the voters in Lowndes County turned out for Tuesday night’s primaries.
Lowndes County Probate Judge John E. Hulett said of the large voter turnout, “It’s the same we always have. We always have about 50 percent every election.”
He also said of the election, “We didn’t have any problems… not any real problems. We had some mixups, but it was alright.”
Hulett said, “Anytime we have local races, it’s going to be a big turnout.”
Also according to the Lowndes County Probate Judge’s Office, there were a total of 857 absentee ballots cast for Tuesday’s Lowndes County primaries that are included in the totals reported.
In local races of interest, Charlie King Jr. received 229 absentee ballots in his loss to Carnell McAlpine, who received 219; Brenson Crenshaw received 24 in his loss to Joshua “Mole” Simmons, who received 13; Karl K. Bell received 176 in his loss to Dickson Farrior, who received 163; and Minnie Peterson received 6 in her loss to Steve Foster, who received 2.
The number of absentee ballots cast for Tuesday’s primary was less than that cast in the primary runoff election held in April of 2012, according to Hulett, in which some 1,427 absentee ballots were cast.
Hulett said he didn’t pay any attention to the number of absentee ballots cast for Tuesday’s primaries.