Lee wins primary
Published 5:01 am Wednesday, May 20, 2009
By jeremy Pittari
Item Staff Writer
Tuesday’s election ran smoothly as ballots only dealt with the runoff election between Democratic candidates Mark Thorman and Ezell Lee. Lee came out the victor according to unofficial results.
After ballots started coming into city hall it took less than an hour to count all 459 votes cast Tuesday. Turnout was low in this election, as reflected in the numbers. Of those voters Lee received 280 votes to Thorman’s 178 votes.
City Clerk Priscilla Daniel said there were still about 12 affidavit votes to count, but those would not be tallied until Wednesday.
Of the five city precincts Thorman only got the majority of the vote in one, precinct 5. In that precinct Thorman received only 10 more votes than Lee, 26 to 16.
The precinct with the lowest number of voters was precinct 3, with 33 votes cast.
The precinct with the most voters was precinct 2, with 191 votes cast. All results do not count the affidavit ballots.
Lee will now face Republican candidate Ed Pinero Jr. in the general election on June 2.
That election day will also host a new primary election between Republican candidates Anna Turnage and Jason Todd Lane, who are running for the precinct 3 council seat. A petition to contest filed by Turnage about inaccuracies in the poll books forced a hearing which resulted in the new primary.