No changes for Stanford council, new faces in Hustonville, Crab Orchard and school board seats

By Abigail Whitehouse
STANFORD – Many precinct lines traveled outside the doors Tuesday as about 53 percent of Lincoln County’s registered voters turned out to cast a ballot in the Nov. 8 general election.
Lincoln County Clerk Sonny Spoonamore said despite the large turnout, the election process went smoothly with no major incidents to report.
“Huge turnout,” Spoonamore said. “We saw a lot of voters who have never voted before too.”
A total of 9,479 of the county’s registered 17,943 voters turned out Tuesday, according to unofficial results.
While Republican nominee Donald Trump won Lincoln County handily over Democratic Hillary Clinton with 7,338 votes to her 1,865, results from the local elections kept some familiar faces in place and invited some new to a few seats.
In the race for the District 4 School Board seat, challenger Alan Hubble received 756 votes (58.20%) to upset incumbent Denny Hogue who garnered 543 votes (41.8%).
Also new to local politics are four Hustonville City Council members after two incumbents withdrew from the six-seat race. Incumbents Bradley Smith and Richard Cooper withdrew from the election but their names still appeared on local ballots. New to the council are Lowell “Marc” Spivey, 82 votes; Alan Sims, 67; Cecil Maddox, 58; and Dudley Hardin, 47. Incumbent Jimmy Evans will also return after earning 89 votes, as well as incumbent Jimmy Lane who received 84 votes.
In Crab Orchard, the city commission will see two new faces on it’s four-seat body. Devon Shelton withdrew from the race for city commissioner but his name still appeared on the election ballot.
Unofficial election results showed Keith Caudill in the lead with 177 votes, followed by incumbent Juanita Pettit with 157 votes and Jerry Shelton with 153 votes. Behind Shelton was Chris Sandlin with 120 votes. Caudill and Sandlin are new to the city commission.
The six members of the Stanford City Council will remain in their seats, according to the results. In order of the highest number of votes, the following council members will return to serve another term: Ronnie Deatherage, 869; Sara Givens, 852; Scottie Ernst, 830; John W. Sallee Jr., 797; Naren James, 783; and Peggy Hester, 748. Write-in candidate Twyla Thomas received 99 votes.
Incumbent Tom Blankenship was able to hold on to his District 5 seat, beating challenger Jeremy Gilliam by 444 votes. Blankenship received a total of 924 votes to Gilliam’s 480.

Other unofficial Lincoln County results:

President

Donald Trump/ Michael Pence (R) — 7,338; 76.75%
Hillary Clinton/Timothy Kaine (D) — 1,865; 19.51%
Gary Johnson/Bill Weld (L) — 226; 2.36%
Ricky De La Fuente/ Michael Steinberg (AMD) — 6; 0.06%
Jill Stein/ Ajamu Baraka (GRN) — 44; 0.46%
Evan McMullin/Nathan Johnson (Ind) — 82; 0.86%

U.S. Senator

Rand Paul (R) — 6,144; 65.31%
Jim Gray (D) — 3,264; 34.69%

U.S. Representative; 5th Congressional District

Harold “Hal” Rogers (R) — 7,734; 100%

Senator; 15th Senatorial District

Rick Girdler (R) — 7,304; 100%

State Representative; 80th Representative District

David Meade (R) — 7,693; 100%

School Board; District 3

Theresa Long — 1,712; 100%

Eubank City Commissioner (vote for 4)

Edward Ray Hicks — 3; 50%

Curtis G. Todd — 2; 33.33%

Alton Fulcher Jr. — 1; 16.67%