Stephen Jones beat Marthalie Porter by six votes in Tuesday’s runoff election to determine who will represent Ward 5 on the Columbus City Council.
Jones received 451 votes. Porter received 445, according to city officials.
“I feel great,” Jones told The Dispatch this morning. “Now the work begins. I have to represent. I ran on a platform of representing both sides of Military Road and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
City officials say Jones will be sworn at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Municipal Complex.
Porter told The Dispatch this morning she is not sure if she will ask for a recount.
A candidate has 12 days to ask to examine ballot boxes. If a candidate finds a discrepancy he or she can file an appeal, according to Joe Dillon, public information officer with the city.
“It was a really good race,” Porter said. “My goodness, it was so close. But you know we all need to be involved in our political system. It was great that so many people came out.
“There’s always another time.”
Following Tuesday’s runoff election, one vote separated the candidates, who were vying to replace Kabir Karriem on the council after he stepped down to take a position in the Legislature. The count was 442 votes for Jones and 441 votes for Porter. However, city officials still had 19 affidavit ballots to count this morning.
That process began about 9 a.m. with a representative from the Lowndes County Circuit Clerk’s office determining if each of the 19 affidavit ballots were valid. Of the 19, 14 were determined valid. The rest were thrown out, according to Joe Dillon, public information officer with the city.
Jones received nine affidavit ballot votes. Porter received four.
Jones is a local Realtor. He also serves on the Columbus Municipal School District board. Jones previously told The Dispatch that if he won the Ward 5 runoff he may step down from the school board.
“We’ll have to see,” Jones said this morning. “I know at some point I will resign. If I have to resign before I get sworn-in, then I’ll resign then.”
Porter is a business owner.
Tuesday’s runoff election saw Porter carry the Mississippi University for Women Carrier Lodge precinct, with 198 votes to Jones’ 26. Jones carried both voting boxes at Union School, outgaining Porter 222 to 105 votes in one and 194 to 138 votes in the second.
In all, 883 of Ward 5’s 3,175 voters had their ballots counted Tuesday. Eight-hundred fifty-six voters participated in the 4-person election on Feb. 16.
Dillon said Tuesday’s tight election is an illustration of how important voting is.
“This is a great civics lesson about why a single vote matters,” Dillon said. “We preach that all the time. It’s easy to forget, but this shows that every individual ballot really does make a difference.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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