Election cycle wraps up with certification
In its final official action of the Nov. 3 general election, the Jefferson County Election Commission signed a letter of certification of the results of the general, municipal, and the nonpartisan judicial elections, and the school elections for the Dollarway, Pine Bluff, and Watson Chapel districts.
The certification letter, along with a copy of the official election results, were directed to be forwarded to the county clerk’s office.
“We actually certified the election on Nov. 14 but because we weren’t able to get the results uploaded into the [election reporting manager] because we had so many ballots that had to be entered manually,” said Mike Adam, chairman of the commission. “So the election was certified but this provides the county clerk with the official certification for her records and that ties everything together.”
Adam said the process of hand counting the ballots that would not feed through the tabulator took well into the night on Nov. 13, and commissioners had to meet again the next evening to reverse a tentative decision that had been made the night before not to count an overseas military ballot. After reviewing the matter Nov. 14, commissioners voted unanimously to accept and count the ballot, and the election results were certified for the secretary of state’s office.
Despite the majority of voters in the state favoring Republican Party candidates, Jefferson County voters favored Democratic Party candidates in all but a few contests, including those of president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House District 4, Arkansas House districts 14 and 27, and two Pine Bluff City Council races.
According to the final, official count, the number of ballots cast in Jefferson County was 25,253, with 14,324 cast during early voting, 2,026 by absentee ballot,
8,772 on Election Day, and 131 provisional ballots.
Adam noted that 55 ballots had to be counted by hand because they would not feed properly through the DS200.
“Of those 55 ballots, we were only able to count 53 of them,” Adam said. “Two of those ballots could not be counted because they were marked incorrectly. The markings were not intelligible.
According to the official ballot count, the county results were as follows: PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Joseph Biden (D) 14,981, 59.55%
President Donald Trump (R) 9,521, 37.84%
Of the other 11 independent and third-party candidates on the ballot, rapper Kanye West received 132 votes, making him the top vote-getter among those candidates. U.S. SENATE
Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. (Lib.) 12,821, 53.16%
Sen. Tom Cotton (R) 11,295, 46.84%
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
DISTRICT 04 William H. Hanson (D) 13,692, 56.58
Rep. Bruce Westerman (R) 9,815, 40.59%
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 27 Keidra Burrell (D) 3,987, 55.68%
Sen. Trent Garner (R) 3,174, 44.32%
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
DISTRICT 14
Rick Bransford (D) 224, 66.67%
Rep. Roger Dayle Lynch 92, 27.38%
Christia Jones (I) 20, 5.95% STATE REPRESENTATIVE
DISTRICT 15
Rep. Kenneth Bragg (R) 2,603, 78.29%
Wayne Williams (I) 722, 21.71% JEFFERSON COUNTY JUSTICE OF THE PEACE DISTRICT 8
Justice Roy Agee (R) 1,179, 70.68%
David Dinwiddie 489, 29.32% PINE BLUFF CITY COUNCIL
WARD 2 POSITION 1 Steven Shaner (D) 2,482, 58.40%
Yvonne M. Denton (I) 1,768, 41.60%
Pine Bluff City Council Ward 3 Position 1
Glen Brown (D) 2,703,
67.63%
Bill Brumett (I) 1,294, 32.37% ALTHEIMER CITY COUNCIL
DISTICT 1 POSITION 2 Joycette Laws Strong (I) 183, 62.89%
Jewel Vanderbilt (I) 108, 37.11%
ALTHEIMER CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 2 POSITION 2
Essie Robertson 193, 64.98% Crystal Gridley (I) 104, 35.02%
WABBASEKA CITY COUNCIL WARD 1 POSITION 1 Melony J. Darrough (I) 71, 60.17%
Edward Spears Sr. (I) 47, 39.83%
CIRCUIT JUDGE DISTRICT 11-WEST DIVISION 3 (NONPARTISAN)
Mac Norton 8,698, 52.75% Therese Free 7,791, 47.25% PINE BLUFF SCHOOL DISTRICT ANNUAL ELECTION
For 4,160, 62.58% Against, 2,487 37.42% DOLLARWAY SCHOOL DISTRICT ANNUAL ELECTION
For 1,287, 50.35% Against 1,269, 49.65%
WATSON CHAPEL SCHOOL DISTRICT ANNUAL ELECTION For 2,784, 53.80% Against 2,391, 46.20%
ISSUE NO. 1
For 14,818, 60.34% Against 9,739, 39.66%
ISSUE NO. 2
For 14,192, 58.81% Against 9,942, 41.19%
ISSUE NO. 3 Against 12,028, 51.04% For 11,537, 48.96%