Election 2022: Vote counting underway
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Leader photo by Nancy Bergeron Renee Womack, election commissioner at the Vienna precinct, delivers her precincts election day returns to Lincoln Parish Clerk of Court Linda Cook Tuesday evening. Vienna was the first precinct to report.
This story will be updated as results continue to be reported.
Vote counting for the Nov. 8 primary election is underway in Lincoln Parish tonight following the closure of the polls at 8 p.m.
Lincoln Parish Clerk of Court workers are at the courthouse to receive and process the tallies from individual precincts.
Ten local candidate races, two Congressional elections and a slate of Louisiana constitutional amendments were on ballots throughout the parish today.
Choudrant reelects Sanderson, aldermen
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Choudrant voters have reelected incumbent Mayor Bill Sanderson for a sixth term, handing him 56% of the votes cast in Tuesday’s election.
Complete but unofficial returns show Sanderson, a Republican, beat fellow GOP challenger Brandon Milner 277 to 218 in Tuesday’s election.
Approximately 66% of Choudrant voters cast ballots in the mayor’s race.
Village voters also reelected their three incumbent aldermen: John Croswell, Jr., Ricky Maier and Thomas Patton. Croswell lead the field with 302 votes, or 29%; followed by Maier with 280 votes, or 27%, and Patton with 262 votes, or 25%.
Change coming in Grambling?
With four of seven precincts reporting, Grambling Mayor Edward Jones is trailing top challenger Alvin Bradley. Jones has 34% of the vote to Bradley’s 55%. Toby Bryan, Grambling’s current mayor pro tem is a distant third with 7% of the vote. LaShaun “Yummy” Johnson has 4%.
In the Grambling City Council race, where five people are to be elected, John F. Brown, Jr. and Delores Wilkerson Smith hold the lead with 14% of the vote each.
Newcomer Devaria Hudson Ponton is in third place with 12% of the vote, while Cathy Holmes, one of only two incumbent council members seeking reelection, is in fourth place with 11% of the vote.
Jerry Lewis and Karen Ludley are tied for fifth place. Incumbent Phyllis Miller trails with 9% of the votes cast so far.
Eleven candidates are vying for the five seats.
Parish picks incumbents in school board races
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Lincoln Parish voters opted for stability in their school board choices tonight, overwhelmingly preferring all four incumbents who were seeking reelection with opposition.
The only new school board member elected tonight was District 1's Danielle Williams, who surged past opponent Willie Washington via the results of the last precinct to report. Incumbent Susan Wiley did not seek reelection.
Current members Hunter Smith, Clark Canterbury, Otha Anders and Debbie Abrahm defeated their challengers by significant margins to reclaim seats in Districts 7, 3, 10 and 12 respectively.
Dunn by one
Dubach District A council member Angela Dunn won reelection to her first full term tonight by the thinnest possible margin: one vote.
Dunn defeated former mayor and council members Ruby Dawson 44 votes to 43.
Dunn first stepped into the council seat when Dawson, who held the seat at the time, became mayor of Dubach following the late mayor Mary Claire Smith's resignation.
Dawson then lost her bid for mayoral reelection to current Mayor Mona Wilson.
The 87 votes cast in the council election accounted for a 42.4% turnout of the registered electorate.