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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
With no Republican opposition and all but provisional ballots counted, Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams unofficially won reelection with 74.17 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic Party Primary.
And it appears that only one Lowndes County local Democratic Primary race is headed for a runoff. That is for Lowndes County Board of Education District 5, which it appears will pit Travis Rogers with 319 votes or 43,28 percent against Joe Pernell with 230 votes or 31.21 percent. Roy Phifer got 188 votes or 25.51 percent of the vote.
In Lowndes County there was no Republican opposition for the local offices of sheriff, County Commission District 1, County Coroner, Lowndes County Board of Education District 1, Lowndes County Board of Education District 2 and Lowndes County Board of Education District 5.
According to officials in the office of Lowndes County Probate Judge John E. Hulett, provisional ballots will not be counted until next week.
In the race for sheriff, Williams received 2,837 votes to 246 for T. Curtis Campbell, 215 for Gary Harden, 173 for Derrick Maull and 354 for his closest competitor Jerome McQueen.
Following his apparent victory, Williams said, “I feel great.” He said, “The Lord is with me. I trust in the Lord. I prayed day and night about this thing. I knew the people of Lowndes County were not going to let me down because I’ve served them for over 30 some odd years. I told them I was going to continue serving them as I have done in the past. So, that’s what I did.”
In the other local Democratic Primary races:
Incumbent Robert Harris defeated Wilbert Barnfield with 535 votes or 76.54 percent to 164 for Lowndes County Commission District 1.
Cassandra Smith received 1,942 votes or 55.84 percent to defeat incumbent Doris Alexander with 881 votes and Carmelita Arnold with 655 votes for the position of County Coroner.
Incumbent Ben Davis defeated Kim Stewart for Board of Education District 1 with 421 votes or 63.21 percent to 245 votes,.
And incumbent Robert Grant defeated Rodney Rudolph for Board of Education District 2 with 702 votes or 69.30 percent to 311 votes.
Other Democratic Primary votes in Lowndes County were as follow:
Governor: Kevin Bass 986 and Parker Griffith 1,871; U.S. Congress 7th District: Tamara Harris Johnson 620 and Terri A. Sewell 2,889; State Senate District 23: Robert W. Green 782 and Hank Sanders 2,780
In the Republican Primary, the Lowndes County results were:
Governor: Robert Bentley 200, Stacy Lee George 7 and Bob Starkey 6; Lt. Governor: Stan Cooke 37 and Kay Ivey 172; Secretary of State: Reese McKinney 130, John Merrill 39 and Jim Perdue 29; State Auditor: Dale Peterson 34, Hobbie L. Sealy 25, Adam Thompson 54 and Jim Zeigler 73; Public Service Commission Place 1: Jeremy H. Oden 108 and Kathy Peterson 78; Public Service Commission Place 2: Jonathan Barbee 35, Chris “Chip” Beeker Jr. 64, Phillip Brown 10
and Terry Dunn 67.