Staff Writer

Many of Pike County’s elected officials will be taking the oath of office again.

All three of the Pike County Commission incumbents who were challenged were re-elected Tuesday.

Although the numbers won’t be made official until Friday, Larry Penn, Ray Goodson and Karen Berry have all been declared the winners.

Larry Penn, a Republican, received 979 (61.96 percent) votes to defeat Democrat Sherrill Calhoun for the District 3 position. Calhoun received 601 votes and 65 people chose not to cast ballots in that race.

Hours after undergoing open-heart surgery, District 4 incumbent Ray Goodson, a Democrat, received word he defeated Republican Jim Medley by 600 votes. Goodson received 1,286 votes (65.11 percent) and Medley garnered 686 votes.

The District 6 commission race was the closest local race. Incumbent Karen Berry, a Democrat, won with 1,181 votes (54.10 percent) over Republican John Schmidt to remain on the commission. Schmidt received 1,000 votes.

Local Amendments 1 and 2, which will end supernumeraries while allowing public officials to participate in the state retirement system passed by narrow margins. Amendment one received 4,118 "yes" votes and Amendment 2 received 4,043 votes in favor of passage. Amendment 1 received 3,273 "no" votes and Amendment 2 received 3,335 "no" votes.

Although Pike Countians were concerned about the local races, most were talking about the heated race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

In Alabama, Bush won by a fair margin.

With 99 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, Bush had 944,155 votes (56 percent) and Gore had 699,815 (42 percent). Nader garnered 17,983 while Buchanan got 6,303; Browne ­ 6,233; Phillips ­ 802 and Hagelin ­ 465.

Here, Bush received 6,048 votes (57.46 percent) and Gore garnered 4,350 votes (41.33 percent). Pike County voters gave Nader 73 votes, Browne got 27 votes, Buchanan received 17, Hagelin got three, and Phillips received four votes.

In the race for United States Representative, Congressional District 2, incumbent Terry Everett, a Republican, received 68 percent of the vote. Everett received 154,785 votes, districtwide and Democratic challenger Charles Woods received 67,624 votes (30 percent). Libertarian candidate Wallace D. McGahan received only two percent (4,214 votes).

Etowah County Circuit Judge Roy Moore, a Republican, was declared the victor with 53 percent of the state vote (878,668). Democrat Sharon Yates received 727,653 votes (45 percent).

Republican Lyn Stuart received 825,528 votes (53 percent) to defeat Democrat Ralph D. Cook, who received 743,701 votes in the race for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Place 1. In the Supreme Court’s Place 2 race, Republican Champ Lyons received 80 percent of the votes by getting 889,305 to Libertarian Sydney Smith’s 226,280. Republican Tom Woodall received 846,282 (54 percent) and Democrat John England received 715,359 votes in the Place 3 race. Republican Bernard Harwood got 845,094 (55 percent) with Democrat Joel Laird getting 697,439 in the Place 4 race.

Going into Tuesday’s election, Democrats held a 3-2 margin on the Court of Civil Appeals and, after the vote, Republicans gained the 4-1 majority.

Republican Craig Pittman narrowly defeated incumbent Roger Moore, a Democrat, in Place 1 race. Pittman beat Monroe by 12,974 votes.

In the Civil Appeals Judge Place 2 race, Pike County native John Crawley, a Republican, received defeated Henry Steagall, a Democrat, to remain on the court.

Republican Glenn Murdock and Democrat Gene Reese were vying for the Place 3 seat being vacated by a retiring Democrat and Murdock came out the victor.

It was the same story in the case of the Court of Criminal Appeals, which had a 3-2 Democratic majority before and a 4-1 Republican majority after.

Republican Greg Shaw won over incumbent James Fry, a Democrat; Republican Kelli Wise defeated Democrat Aubrey Ford to claim the seat being vacated by a Republican’s retirement and Democratic incumbent Sue Bell Cobb beat Republican Alice Martin.

In the race for Public Service Commission president, incumbent Jim Sullivan, a Republican, overwhelmingly defeated Libertarian candidate Matthew A. Givens by getting 82 percent of the votes cast. Sullivan received 922,246 votes and Given got 198,833 votes.

Amendment 1, which will provide funding for roads, bridges, state agriculture labs and development of the state docks in Mobile, passed with 870,275 votes (63 percent).

Most Alabama voters chose to do away with the law prohibiting interracial marriages. Amendment 2 received 801,904 votes (60 percent) "yes" votes.

Amendment 3, which will guarantee that cities and counties get 10 percent of interest from Alabama’s natural gas trust fund passed with 70 percent of the vote.

Alabama voters ratified the Constitution by passing Amendment 4 with 63 percent of the vote. That amendment will simplify school tax referenda by removing the Constitutional requirement a county must have a countywide property tax to benefit schools before any school district within that county can enact a property for its schools.

Amendment 5, which will allow the governor to appoint two more trustees to Auburn University’s board passed by a better than 2-1 margin. Allowance to put appoint two non-Alabama board members passed by 69 percent (778,213 votes).