TALLADEGA — With all but 35 to 40 provisional ballots counted, incumbent Mayor Brian York defeated former Mayor Larry Barton by a total of 68 votes in Tuesday’s runoff election.Dr. Jimmy Davis narrowly defeated business owner Larry Haynes for the City Council seat for Ward 4, and incumbent Board of Education members Bonnie Miller, Joe Hare and James Braswell were all re-elected.
There were a total of 3,544 ballots cast, including 245 absentee ballots that were counted Tuesday night.
York edged out Barton to win a second term by 1,793 to 1,725, with 26 ballots cast where no mayoral candidate was indicated.
Barton handily carried the absentee ballots by 198 to 46, but when the first precinct results came in York pulled ahead and stayed ahead for the remainder of the evening.
“I want to thank all my supporters, everyone who helped my campaign and especially everyone who came out and voted for me. I look forward to working with the three new councilmen, as well as the two that will be returning to office. I’m excited about four years of even bigger and better things for Talladega, and better lives for our citizens,” York said after the election results were announced.
Incumbent Councilmen Dr. Horace Patterson and Eddie Tucker were re-elected in August without a runoff. Donnie Miller defeated incumbent James Armstrong without a runoff in the general election, and former County Schools Superintendent Dr. Lance Grissett defeated incumbent William Clark without a runoff as well.
Incumbent Ward 4 Councilman Charles Pope dropped out of the re-election early, resulting in the only runoff Tuesday for a council seat.
Davis carried just over 52 percent of the vote, defeating Haynes by 486 votes to 439 votes.
“I am very honored to win, and also very humbled by the responsibilities and challenges of representing my ward and this city as a whole,” Davis said after the ballots from Ward 4 had been counted.
All five Board of Education members will retain their seats as leaders of the Talladega City School System for the next four years.
Election results came in with the three incumbents who faced a runoff challenge — Ward 3 representative Bonnie Miller, Ward 4 representative Joe Hare and Ward 5 representative James Braswell — coming out on top.
Miller, a three-term incumbent, collected the greatest margin of the night, defeating challenger Martha Livingston 333 to 264.
“I appreciate Ms. Livingston. She had a very good campaign and ran a very clean campaign,” Miller said.
A 10 percent difference stood between the two in the general election and remained the winning margin in the runoff.
“I want to thank everyone who voted for me and I will try to do the very best I can for every child in the Talladega City School System. I will do my best for the children,” Miller said.
Hare was able to keep his seat with 38 ballots going in his favor. The incumbent Ward 4 representative finished with 480, 52.06 percent of the vote, to challenger Elizabeth Smith’s 442, or 47.94 percent.
“I’m looking forward to another four years working for the city School System. The board stays intact and I hope we can get off to a new start,” Hare said. “I want to compliment Ms. Smith also. She ran a good, hard race.”
Ward 5 representative and current board chairman James Braswell also prevailed with 38 more votes than challenger Joyce Howard.
Braswell ended the night with 457 votes, or 52.17 percent of Ward 5’s approval, to Howard’s 419 votes, 47.83 percent.
“I’m glad I won and I look forward to serving four more years, especially with Dr. Horton. I want to congratulate Joyce Howard. She ran a hard fought race and she would have made a good board member,” Braswell said. “I’m going to try my best to get off to a new start. I think for the system to do better, for the superintendent to do better, for everyone to do better, there has to be harmony, there has to be respect and there has to be trust. If those don’t happen, there won’t be success.”
Ward 1 board member Shirley Simmons-Sims and Ward 2 board member Mary McGhee retained their board seats in the general election on Aug. 28.
Simmons-Sims collected 63.8 percent of the vote to win outright. McGhee was declared the winner with 54.36 percent overall once the provisional ballots were counted.
