Mayoral race too close to call Tuesday
The race to decide who will hold Starkville’s highest office may have to wait until Wednesday morning to see a winner named.
Local property owner and former Starkville chief administrative officer Lynn Spruill beat attorney Johnny Moore by 12 votes on Tuesday, with the unofficial results giving Spruill a 1866 to 1854 victory.
An unverified number of affidavit ballots will be processed Wednesday morning at 9 a.m at City Hall.
Election officials have until next Tuesday to certify the results of Tuesday’s election and told the SDN more than 12 affidavit votes will need to be processed before an official winner can be named.
Despite the looming uncertainty, Spruill said she is excited by the prospect of being in the lead and motivated by the high voter turnout.
“We ran a strong race and obviously the community all came out,” Spruill said. “The runoff was even more than in the primary, which is unusual, so everyone got motivated and got out to vote and showed their support for candidate of their choice.”
Spruill, 64, previously served eight years as chief administrative officer for the city of Starkville. Prior to her work with the city, she also served in different elected positions in the Dallas suburb of Addison, Texas - including the office of mayor.
Moore, 56, has practiced law in Starkville since 1985 and is a graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi Law School.
Moore echoed the surprise over the high turnout in comparison to the primary turn-
out, but said he is optimistic going into Wednesday morning.
It’s really close and we’ll
see what happens tomorrow,” Moore told the SDN Tuesday night. “I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m excited to see people that were that interested in the election, because you don’t
have that kind of turnout in runoffs.”
Spruill said following the results that she feels privileged to be in a position to be Starkville’s next mayor.
“I will be there in the morning to go over the vote count and look at the affidavit ballots and I’m looking forward to going to work for the people of Starkville,” Spruill said.