Final Election Results & Updates

Winston County absentee & affidavit ballots were counted and all votes tallied on late Wednesday evening. The results can be seen at our results blog by clicking here. Only two races remained to be settled which came down to the absentee ballots which were required to be counted by hand.

The State Senate District 18 and the State House District 43 races came down to the wire and less than 200 votes separate candidates in both races. Both races also experienced some ballot issues in individual precincts that may result in challenges to the results.

In Senate District 18 which covers Neshoba, and parts of Leake & Winston County, incumbent Giles Ward (R) defeated Steven Kilgore (D) by a margin of only 151 votes. While Ward easily carried Winston County, he had to make up vote deficits in Leake & Neshoba. Final vote tally district wide is as follows: Ward 8882 or 50.43%.... Kilgore 8731 or 49.57%. On Wednesday, Kilgore files an election challenge with Winston County Circuit Clerk Kim Ming citing that some voters may have received the wrong ballots in the County Agent & Nanih Waiya precincts. It is unknown at this time whether the challenge will be pursued further.

In House District 43, which covers Winston and small parts of Kemper and Noxubee Counties, Democratic challenger Michael Evans has defeated incumbent Russ Nowell (R) by an apparent total of 166 votes. This race remained uncertain until the last absentee and affidavit ballots were counted. In Winston County, Evans managed an 18 vote lead when all votes were tallied. Combined with the results in Kemper and Noxubee Counties, the final count resulted in a margin of 166 votes. The vote tally district wide is as follows: Evans 4533 or 50.9% .... Nowell 4367 or 49.1%. This race is not without controversy as the ballots in a single box in Kemper County were recorded with the wrong House district. In this case no votes were recorded for either candidate. The box consisted of 92-93 votes which would be insufficient to change the outcome of the overall vote.