GOP commission race a tie

By Staff
Check www.hartselleenquirer.com for official vote count updates
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
The importance of the single vote was mirrored in Tuesday's GOP Primary Runoff Election as incumbent Richard Lyons and challenger Ken Livingston tied for the Morgan County Commission District 2 seat, according to complete but unofficial results.
Brewer High School teacher and former coach Bob Balch held on to the lead he established in the June 6 primary election and defeated Priceville principal Guy Bowling for the GOP nomination for Morgan County superintendent of education.
Results of the commission race showed Lyons and Livingston both with 4,020 votes. Not included were 12 provisional ballots. How they fall when an official vote count is conducted later this week could determine who will challenge Democratic nominee Ronnie Shipley for the job in the Nov. 7 General Election.
A provisional ballot is one that is cast by a person whose eligibility to vote is questioned by poll workers, according to Morgan County Probate Judge Bobby Day. "Usually, it is because that person's name does not appear on the eligible voters list."
He added that the Board of registrars has to verify information for each ballot that's cast to determine if they qualify to be counted. Subsequently, election officials-Judge Day, the sheriff and circuit clerk-will conduct a public count of the ballots. After which the results will be certified.
"The outcome will rest on what those provisional ballots show us," Day added, "and that will take about a week."
Lyons was the leader in a three-man race for the commission seat in the Primary Election with 42.2 per cent of the votes. Livingston had 37 per cent and Ray Bowling polled 20 per cent.
Balch won the nomination for superintendent by polling 2,678 votes, or 58.1 per cent of the total. Bowling received 1,928 votes, or 41,9 percent.
In the Primary, Balch led four other candidates with 2,265 votes. Bowling was second with 1,560.
Voter turnout for the runoff was light as expected. The unofficial count showed that slightly more than 8,000 voters cast ballots. Over twice that number voted in the Primary.
In Republican statewide races, with 99 percent of the votes counted, results were as follows: