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Commissioner race decided by mere one vote
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| By: ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
November 05, 2008 |
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Tuesday's race for Lincoln County Election Commissioner District 4 was decided by one vote - probably the closest election in county history, said Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Terry Lynn Watkins.
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Challenger Janie Sisco collected 1,580 votes from the district's six precincts, defeating 20-year veteran incumbent Charles Monroe Smith, who fell one vote short with 1,579. The percentage tally from the race was 49.87 percent to 49.84 percent.
"I knew it was going to be a close race because we're from the same community," said Sisco, who lives only a few miles South of Smith on Jackson Liberty Drive. "It was just a toss-up with us."
Smith, who was feeling ill Tuesday night, left the courthouse before all votes were counted. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
Watkins said Smith has 10 days from Tuesday to challenge the tally and request a recount, but for now Sisco is the winner.
Sisco, who has never participated in politics before, was taken aback by the hair-width decision in her first ever race. Sisco praised Smith as a good man, saying she knew he would get a lot of votes.
"Wow," she said around midnight Tuesday as she finally left the vote-counting in the Lincoln County-Brookhaven Government Complex. "I never thought it would be that close."
As it stands, Sisco will become the only new face on the commission when the office changes hands in January.
Three of the commissioners ran unopposed, and incumbent Bennon Case defeated challenger Gloria Brown by a vote of 2,202-1,042, gathering in almost 68 percent of the votes in District 3's precincts to Brown's 32 percent.
The 74-year-old Case, elated in his late-night victory, said the next four years will likely be his last with the election commission.
"This will probably be my last time to run," he said. "I enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm proud I won - I didn't think I'd win by that majority."
Case, who has served on the commission since 2006 as an appointee after the death of Floy McClellan, will begin his first full term in January.
Case, who has had victorious bouts with cancer, said he would not have run had he not received a clean bill of health. He gave all the credit to the Lord and Baptist Medical Center's Dr. Tammy Young.
"I feel better than I ever have, and we have a lot of things to accomplish," he said.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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