Turnout up from four years ago, but only 22% of Clay County’s registered voters went to the polls

CLAY COUNTY-In the only contested race here in the county general election, Clay County Trustee Angie Thompson easily retained her seat by garnering close to 80% of the vote, while other unchallenged incumbents also received good numbers when it came to votes of confidence.

Thompson, who was appointed to serve out the unexpired term of longtime county trustee Charlie Key upon his death last fall, defeated challenger James “Tater” Johnson by a wide margin.

The incumbent received 903 votes (78.11%), compared to Johnson’s 251 (21.71%).  The total also included two write-in ballots (.17%).

Of the 1,156 votes cast in the race, the majority of them (596) came during early voting, while 503 were cast on Election Day and 55 via absentee ballot.

The same trend was seen in the local election as a whole.

Of the 1,187 total votes cast, 608 came during early voting, 521 on Election Day, and 58 through absentee-ballot voting.

The less than 1,200 total votes only represented a 22.09% overall turnout of the 5,373 registered voters here in Clay County, but the number was up slightly from four years ago, when just 19.57% of local voters went to the polls.

Clay County Assessor of Property Angie Eads was unopposed in the only other countywide race on the ballot, and she received 997 votes of confidence.

Commission,

school board

Like Thompson, Elizabeth Boles was appointed to fill the open District 5 Clay County Commission seat vacated by Michael Miller.

Boles ran unopposed and received 176 votes.

District 1 and District 4 Clay County School Board races followed the same path, with incumbents retaining their seats due to a lack of opposition.

Mark Ashlock (197) and Nick Melton (177) both received a good number of complimentary votes, while 4th District school board members Benjamin Bailey (181) and Vonda Weir (154) followed suit.

Judicial races

13th Judicial District Judge Part III Shawn C. Fry ran to retain his judgeship unopposed in the general election and received 733 local votes.  He obtained a total of 13,779 complimentary votes overall.

Clay County voters also voted to retain Matthew J. Wilson as the Court of Appeals Western Division Judge by a margin of 554 to 217, and Dwight Tarwater on the Supreme Court by a 546-227 tally.

Dem. primary

In the August primary elections, voters also had the choice between a Democratic and Republican ballot.

The Democratic primary featured two contested races.

Marquita Bradshaw, Lola Denise Brown, Gloria Johnson, and Civil Miller-Watkins battled it out to become the U.S. Senate nominee, while Lore Bergman, Clay Faircloth, and Cyril Focht were vying to win the nomination for District 6 U.S. House.

Johnson won Clay County with 60.81% (90) of the vote, and she also earned the nomination with a total of 143,904 votes representing 70.20% of the total vote.

Bergman (62–46.62%) won a close race with Faircloth (50—37.59%) locally and the same held true overall, as Bergman received a total of 8,678 votes (42.20%) to Faircloth’s 7,468 (36.32%).

Those running unopposed in the Democratic primary included Clay County native Carol V. Abney, who will be the District 12 State Executive Committeewoman after getting 140 votes in Clay County and 2,879 districtwide; District 12 State Executive Committeeman Robert M. Young (105 local votes); and District 12 State Senate nominee Curtis Kelly (113 local votes).

GOP primary

The Republican primary mirrored the Democratic Party’s ballot when it came to the number of contested races.

The two nominations where challengers were present included U.S. Senate and District 12 State Senate.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn handily defeated Tres Wittum, while current District 12 State Senator Ken Yager did the same to Teena Hedrick.

Blackburn won Clay County 758-61 with 92.44% of the vote, and she also won the nomination with a total of 367,711 votes districtwide representing 89.48% of the total vote.

Yager also won locally by a wide margin, as he beat Hedrick 602-161 with 78.80% of the Clay County vote, while he secured a total of 15,654 votes (77.34%) districtwide.

6th District U.S. Senator John Rose (722), 38th District State Representative Kelly Keisling (774), and 12th District State Executive Committeewoman Ann Ayers-Colvin (638) all also received a good number of votes of confidence in Clay County while running unopposed.

All of the primary winners will move on to the upcoming November 5 State and Federal General Election, where they will be joined on the ballot by the race for the President of the United States.

An election notice for the November election is published courtesy of local election administrator Monica Davis and the Clay County Election Commission on page 3 of this week’s HORIZON and appears below.

For more information about the upcoming election, contact Davis at 931-243-2536.