Voters in City Council District 9 have a new representative: Yusuf Hakeem, who this morning was declared the winner of the March 5 election.
Members of the Hamilton County Election Commission voted to grant Hakeem the win over incumbent Peter Murphy. No runoff election is necessary.
In the March 5 election, Hakeem received six more votes than Murphy.
Hakeem won 1,030 votes (49.98 percent) to Murphy’s 1,024. There were seven write-in ballots.
The city charter states the winner will be the candidate with the most “ballots cast:”
“In each city primary election hereafter held if any candidate for mayor, city judge or city council member shall receive a majority of the votes cast for all candidates for the office or administrative post for which he was a candidate, he shall be declared elected, and given a certificate of election, and his name shall not be placed on the ballot in the regular election.”
Under state law, write-in candidates have to register with their local election commission to have their votes counted. There were no official write-ins in the 9th District. Those ballots were cast for Melony Collins, J.J., Andrae McGary (who was the incumbent defeated in the District 8 race), Moses Freeman (the candidate who won District 8), Michael Dwayne Davenport, and two “check marks.”
Louie Brogdon began reporting with the Chattanooga Times Free Press in February 2013. Before he came to the Scenic City, Louie lived on St. Simons Island, Ga. and covered crime, courts, environment and government at the Brunswick News, a 17,000-circulation daily on the Georgia coast. While there, he was awarded for investigative reporting on police discipline and other law enforcement issues by the Georgia Press Association. For the Times Free Press, Louie covers Hamilton County ...
