Council hopes run-off election is smoother
Published 9:27 pm Tuesday, September 4, 2012
The Selma City Council made official what everyone knew last week at the end of the municipal election. Selma Mayor George Evans was re-elected, as were three other members of the council, as well as three members of the Selma City School Board, and that voters must now get ready for five more weeks of campaigning to help settle three run-off races.
During Tuesday’s special meeting, the council canvassed — or finalized — the results of the municipal elections, approving the election of those candidates who earned a majority of votes in each race or those candidates who qualified for run-offs.
The run-offs will include the race for Selma City Council president, which will involve Corey Bowie and Tremayne Gorden. The race for city council Ward 6 will be settled in a run-off between incumbent B.L. Tucker and Johnnie Leashore.
The final race will be for school board District 1, which will include Kirit Chapatwala and Cynthia Harris.
The election will be citywide, since the run-off elections include the race for council president, but only those voters in Wards 1 and 2 will see the school board race added to their ballot. Likewise, only voters in Ward 6 will see the race for council on their ballot alongside the council president race.
All other voters in the city will only have the council president race on their ballot.
The run-off elections will be held Tuesday, Oct. 9.
In approving the election, the council also approved a measure that would require the voters’ list to again be published in the Times-Journal. City council members and staff agreed there was some confusion as to what Wards people were located and thier polling places.
Selma City attorney Jimmy Nunn did say there were some mistakes made in where some voters were moved to after the redistricting and hoped to have those issues cleared up ahead of the Oct. 9 election.