Election results certified
Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2016
The results of Troy’s municipal election were made official on Tuesday by the city council after clearing up some confusion regarding missing provisional ballots.
The council members canvassed the results and declared Jason Reeves, Dejerilyn King Henderson and Robert Jones the winners of their races.
The confusion came from five missing PB-3s, forms that are supposed to be included with provisional ballots. The form includes the sworn affirmation of the voter that he or she is “a registered voter in the precinct in which [he or she is] seeking to vote and that [he or she is] eligible to vote in this election.”
At the start of the meeting, city clerk Alton Starling informed the council members of the situation and explained that he was waiting on a court order to allow him to unseal the record of election to see if election officials accidentally placed them there.
Starling said that the officials might have confused the voter update form with the PB-3s concerning where to file them.
The initial plan of the council was to certify the election results in District 5 and then reconvene later to certify the mayoral and District 1 races.
The council ended up deciding to vote to certify the election results without the missing ballots, as the votes would not influence the outcome of any of the races.
The council is also legally bound to certify the results of an election within seven days, so any delays in certifying the results could have caused more issues.
The court order came in just before the councilmembers voted, but the council went ahead and certified the results that were presented, with the possibility of adding in the results of the provisional ballots if the PB-3s are found and the board of registrars determine that the voters are eligible.
Of 55 provisional ballots filled out during the election, the board of registrars approved 16 of the ballots, which Starling added to the vote totals before the council voted to certify the results.
Greg Meeks, Marcus Paramore and Johnny Witherington voted to certify the results. Charlie “Sarge” Dunn was not present and Dejerilyn Henderson abstained.
In Brundidge, Byron Gaynor was officially declared the winner of the District 4 race and runoffs were declared for the mayoral race and District 5 race.
The candidates in the mayoral runoff are Cynthia Pearson and Isabell Boyd. Boyd finished with 34.83 percent of the vote while Boyd received 28.55 percent.
The candidates in the runoff for District 5 are Chris Foster and James Jones. Foster received 43.59 percent of the vote and Jones received 30.77 percent.
Vote totals were also updated to include the results from provisional ballots.
The runoff election will be held on Tuesday October 4. Absentee voting will be open through Thursday, September 29. All districts will vote at Brundidge Station. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The new councilmembers will take office in November.