Runoff Election Summary - Updated!!!

It was a long night for vote counters and candidates at the Winston County Courthouse as several local runoff races were very tight and a large number of absentee ballots had to be counted by hand. It was after midnight before absentee ballots were added to the vote totals of the county's 12 boxes. Even so, there is likely one race still in question. In the race for Winston County Tax Assessor, Larry Woodward leads Janet Jackson by only 23 votes. As there are 66 afidavit ballots yet to be counted today, the outcome is still uncertain.  **** afidavits were counted by Wednesday afternoon and although the vote count tightened, Woodwardmaintained a 16 vote lead over Jackson. Barring any recounts the results on our election page are complete.*****

Afidavit ballots may or may not be counted as election officials determine the validity of the ballot. Afidavit ballots are typically filed when there is a question as to the residency of a voter in one district versus another. These ballots should be reviewed sometime today.

43.22% of the registered voters in Winston County participated in the runoff election. While not a high figure this is likely higher than the statewide average as Winston County had seven local races in the runoff which brought more voters to the polls.

Vote counting went well into the evening due to several factors; there were a large number of absentee ballots (633) and due to the short period of time between the initial primary election and the political parties' late certification of results, scannable ballots were not available for this runoff. This required workers to count each ballot by hand.

All vote counts and percentages can be found on our election page. Here is a summary of each local race. All local office runoffs were Democratic:
Chancery Clerk: Julie Cunningham defeated incumbent Pam Reel with 54.48% of the vote.
Sheriff: Jason Pugh defeated Walter Coburn with 58.14% of the vote
District 1 Supervisor: James "Burr" Warner defeated Lee Mitchell with 54.32% of the vote
District 3 Supervisor: Mike Peterson defeated J. Louis Jernigan, Jr with 52.87% of the vote
District 4 Supervisor: Gloria Turnipseed defeated Don Sisson with 68.8% of the vote
Constable West Post: Ed Hunt defeated Karl Black with 51.41% of the vote
Tax Assessor/Collector: Larry Woodward defeats Janet Jackson with 50.08% of the vote -only a 16 vote difference. **Updated since first reported***
Two statewide offices were on the ballot. Winston County voters bucked the tide as Bill Luckett for Democratic Governor and Lee Yancey for Republican State Treasurer  won the most votes in the county but lost their bids for office on the statewide level.