Donald J. Bennett has defeated longtime Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. by a single vote, the county canvassing board certified Tuesday.
The board, composed of Probate Judge Carlton Hogue, Sheriff Roy Fikes and Circuit Clerk Mia Turner, met along with members of the Perry County Board of Registrars at noon to review and count 24 provisional ballots from the May 19 Democratic primary. The process took about an hour.
Turner received 10 of the provisional votes and Bennett received 3, narrowing Bennett’s election night lead of eight votes. But the final certified totals, 398 for Bennett and 397 for Turner, gave Bennett the nomination by one vote out of 805 cast.
Hogue announced the results to a packed room, asking the crowd for no outbursts. Brief applause broke out after he read the District 1 totals.
The provisional count also added votes in three other local races without changing any outcomes. In the District 2 commission race, Ernest L. Donaldson picked up 3 provisional votes and Tony Long 1, but Long’s election night margin held. Sheriff Roy Fikes received 19 provisional votes to Robert “Tony” Sykes’ 8. Tiffanie Lewis picked up 1 provisional vote in the Board of Education District 5 race, which Vera Davis won.
Turner has indicated he intends to challenge the result. In the week since the primary, he has accused the Probate Judge and Board of Registrars of improperly handling the election, claiming that voters who lived in District 1 were given ballots for other districts and that voting machine failures may have caused votes to be lost.
Under Alabama law, a contest of a primary nomination for county office must be filed with the chair of the county Democratic executive committee within 24 hours after the canvass.
Because there is no Republican candidate in the District 1 general election, the Democratic nominee will take the seat.
