CULLMAN– Thank you for voting and we’ll see you in November! Not so fast, Cullman. We’re heading to a runoff on April 12!
The Cullman County Commission Chairman was the race to watch with incumbent Kenneth Walker bringing in 44% of the votes. He will meet Darrell Hicks, who won 34%, in the April 12 runoff. With 50 of 51 boxes reported, newcomer Eric L. Parker won just 22% of the votes.
Both runoff men were in good spirits and upbeat about tonight’s results.
“I’m satisfied being in a runoff. It’s what I was looking for. I’m going to try to get as many of Mr. Parker’s votes as I can,” Hicks said with a smile and a wink.
“We’re going to run like we lost,” laughed Walker. “We’re going to work hard. We’re going to have people out and about for six weeks and hopefully we can break this chain of not electing a chairman again.”
With 9 of 10 boxes reporting in District One, West Point will continue to be represented by Gene Sullins on the Cullman County Board of Education. Sullins brought in 62% of the votes compared to his opponent, Patrick Klein, who had 38%.
Holly Pond will see a new Board of Education member with Heath Allbright winning by 52% in District Three, with 7 of 8 boxes reported. Destry Stone was second with 20% followed closely by Sam Benefield at 19%. Lastly, incumbent James A. Thompson won 9% of the votes in his district.
Cullman County Republicans voted Donald J. Trump as their presidential nominee with just shy of 51% of the votes. Ted Cruz was second with 20% and Marco Rubio saw 14% of the votes.
The party, which accounted for 90.85% of the ballots cast in Cullman, chose incumbents Richard Shelby as U.S. Senator and Robert Aderholt as the U.S. Representative in the 4th Congressional District.
Incumbents also garnered wins for the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Place 3 race with Tom Parker, and Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh brought in another victory as Public Service Commission President.
Local Democrats opted for Hillary Clinton as their nominee as she won 61% of the votes over Bernie Sanders’ 34%. Ron Crumpton took the U.S. Senate race for the party.
Cullman citizens voted a solid "Yes," 64%, on Proposed Statewide Amendment Number One. (Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to authorize the Legislature to provide a retirement program for district attorneys and circuit clerks of the state who are first elected or appointed on or after November 8, 2016. (Proposed by Act 2015-342))
We’ll see you in six weeks, voters, and again in November!
For a complete list of results, visit http://co.cullman.al.us/elections/electioncenter.html.
