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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

SELMA – With the election season fully complete and the municipal bodies set for the next four years, the Selma City Council approved the results of the city’s runoff election during a special-called meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at Selma City Hall.

Section 11-46-55 of the Code of Alabama states that on the Tuesday following the election at noon, the city’s clerk must deliver the envelopes containing the election results to the governing body. The governing body then canvasses the returns and determines the number of votes received by each candidate that participated in the runoff.

With a quorum six out of the nine members on the City Council present, the Selma City Council approved a resolution to canvass the results of the runoff election, which was held on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

The canvassing produced four approved provisional ballots out of the 15 that were declared, all of which tallied a vote in the mayoral runoff for Aaron Roper. The four additional votes were the only change reflected from the unofficial results.

With the final results having been canvassed, Johnny Moss III defeated Roper in the mayoral runoff, which originally saw seven people campaign for the position. Moss earned 2,368 votes, or 57.05 percent of the 4,151 total votes casted. Roper, with the provisional ballots added on, totaled 1,783 votes, or the remaining 42.95 percent. Moss will take over for incumbent James Perkins Jr., who missed out on the being in the runoff by 29 votes in the general election.

Moss has served as the president of the Selma City Schools Board of Education and also currently serves at Wallace State Community College Selma, where he works in the Office for Marketing and College Relations.

Ward 1 on the council will see incumbent Troy Harvill retain his seat on the body after defeating Charles Bennett. Harvill earned 431 of the 775 total votes, or 55.61 percent. Bennett earned 344 votes during the runoff, or the remaining 44.39 percent.

City Council Ward 5 will see a new face take its seat for the first time in 25 years as current representative Samuel Rudolph informed his colleagues that he would be retiring from the position.

After the runoff election of what was originally a five-person race, Nadine Sturdivant earned a landslide victory over challenger Timfreit Drane. Out of the 620 votes casted, Sturdivant reeled in 447 of those, or 72.10 percent. Drane got the other 173 votes, or the remaining 27.90 percent.

Sturdivant graduated within Selma City Schools in 1979 before going on to earn her Associate of Science from Wallace State Community College Selma and a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Troy University. She is currently employed with Selma City Schools as a secretary and bookkeeper, having worked with the school system for 25 years. She has also been employed with the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center as a counselor for 10 years.

The final runoff for the Selma City Council was in Ward 6, which will see Ashley Ervin take over for incumbent Atkin Jemison after she secured the most of the 459 votes tallied. Ervin earned 293 votes, or 63.83 percent. Jemison earned the other 166, or 36.17 percent. Ervin currently works as an equipment operator at International Paper, where she has been for the last eight years.

Those individuals will serve the next four years with a council that already consists of Christie Thomas of Ward 2, Clay Carmichael of Ward 3, Lesia James of Ward 4, Jannie Thomas of Ward 7 and Michael Johnson of Ward 8, all of whom are incumbents to their positions. The council will also see a new president take over, as Kennard Randolph defeated Warren “Billy” Young in the Municipal Election on Aug. 26.

There was also one runoff for the Selma City Schools Board in District 4, which saw incumbent Tanya Miles be defeated by Brittney Houser. Houser earned 565 of the 981 votes casted, getting 57.59 percent of the vote, while Miles got 416 votes, or the remaining 42.41 percent.

The resolution was approved with a unanimous vote from all those who were present after a motion moved by Councilwoman James and a second by Councilman Johnson.

In addition, the council approved a resolution that accepts the city’s renewal of an annual contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, with the understanding that the council might reconvene to decide whether the city or its employees will pay the increase in its policy, as well as to possibly amend for an increase in the budget for the 2026 fiscal year should the city take on the increased payment. The motion was moved by Councilwoman James and given a second by Councilman Randolph before a unanimous roll call vote was given.