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By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

Doug Jones carried Lowndes County in the race for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Dec. 12 with 79.06 percent of the vote. And 7 mills in ad valorem property tax renewals for 25 years for Lowndes County Public Schools passed with an average of 80.26 percent of the vote.

And according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office, based on numbers provided by Probate Judge John E. Hulett, more than 47 percent of registered voters in Lowndes County voted.

According to unofficial results from the office of Probate Judge John E. Hulett with all but provisional votes counted, Jones carried the county with 3,779 votes or 79.06 percent to 988 votes for Roy S. Moore or 20.67 percent. There were 13 write-in votes and 161 absentee ballots cast of which Jones received 146 absentee ballots and Moore received 15 absentee ballots.

A 1-mill public school tax passed with 3,496 votes or 80.59 percent to 842 votes or 19.41 percent; a 3-mill public school tax passed with 3,388 votes or 79.76 percent of the vote to 860 votes or 20.24 percent; and a 3-mill public school tax passed with 3,450 votes or 80.42 percent to 840 votes or 19.58 percent of the vote.

Following the vote to renew 7 mills of ad valorem property tax for 25 years, Lowndes County School Superintendent Daniel Boyd said, “I feel really good about this. This is truly an affirmation that our parents and our stakeholders really believe in public education. So, I’m pleased. I would like to thank the many people who helped to make this happen.”

He said, “This gives us a reason to continue to push forward to improve teaching and learning across the school district.”

Boyd the next tax renewal for this set of taxes will be 2042. He said other ad valorem taxes for Lowndes County Public Schools won’t have to be renewed for 17 years.

According to Alabama Secretary of State’s Office with all 67 counties reporting, there were 1,346,147 votes cast from a total of 3,326,812 registered voters for a voter turnout of 40.46 percent statewide.

According to unofficial numbers, Jones received 671,151 votes for 49.92 percent to 650,436 votes or 48.38 percent for Moore. There were 22,780 write-in votes for 1.69 percent.

There were 4,795 votes cast from a total of 10,171 registered voters in Lowndes County for a voter turnout of 47.14 percent.