Problems with a ballot scanner delayed vote counts Thursday night, Marion County Administrator of Elections Gary Reames said.
When the ballots were counted, longtime County Trustee David A. Kirk, a Democrat, defeated Republican Russ Hood for the county mayor’s seat with 56 percent of the vote.
The current assistant trustee, Sue Blevins, won Kirk’s old seat over Republican Donna Sartin with 66 percent of votes cast.
Those results will produce a small office shuffle at the Marion County Courthouse. Kirk will move about 10 feet to the county mayor’s office, and Blevins will move about the same distance from her former desk in the trustee’s office to the boss’s desk.
Challenger Hood said he appreciated the ballots for him Thursday while Kirk said he was “tickled” with the victory.
“We got a few fences to mend and then we’ll get down to work,” Kirk said. He said he has “some wrongs that I need to make right,” but he wouldn’t elaborate further.
In other Marion races, Republican Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett defeated challenger Ronnie Davis Jr., the Whitwell police chief, with 79 percent of the vote. Burnett first took the office in 2002.
Sequatchie County also had technical problems that delayed vote counts in County Commission District 6, Administrator of Elections Linda Pittman Tate said.
Tate said powerful storms that surged through the area Thursday evening took out a couple of voting machines.
“The only problem we had was with the storm that created a power surge that threw the voting machines in a brief nonworking mode. They were brought back here and we were able to reboot those and get the votes off of them. It didn’t hurt them,” Tate said.
MARION BALLOT
County Mayor
David A. Kirk, D, 3,262
Russ Hood, R, 2,504
County Commission
3rd District Seat A
Don E. Adkins Jr., D, 703
Melvin Turner, R, 531
4th District Seat A
David B. West, D, 587
“Buddy” Richardson, R, 569
4th District Seat B
Mack Reeves, D, 728
Gregg Marble, R, 384
Trustee
Sue Blevins, D, 3,709
Donna Sartin, R, 1,892
Sheriff
Ronnie “Bo” Burnett, R, 4,556
Ronnie Davis Jr., D, 1,186
School Board (nonpartisan)
4th District
Ola Mae Reeves 613
Neal Nelson 442
5th Distict
Jim Poston 567
Scott Cumby 239
Marsha A. Terry 162
Richard City Special School District (nonpartisan)
Melissa Phenis 20
Jimmy Hailey 19
Constable
4th District
Marion “Doodle” Richardson, R, 751
Terry L. Davis, D, 358
5th District
Darrell Powell, R, 599
Adam J. Smith, D, 357
SEQUATCHIE COUNTY
County Executive
Michael Hudson, 1,766
D. Keith Cartwright, 1,479
Jeffrey S. Mackey, 427
County Commissioner District 1
(Vote for 2)
Richard E. Harvey, 204
Barnett “Barney” Slatton, 186
Gary L. Williams, 180
Barry J. Smith, 140
David Earl Bishop, 65
County Commissioner District 2
(Vote for 2)
Don E. Walker 291
Brian Farley 263
Chuck Priputin 141
County Commissioner District 3
Marsha Hamblen Carr 279
Claude C. Lewis, 259
John Ross Lusk 61
County Commissioner District 5
(Vote for 2)
Paul D. Powell, 379
Denise J. Kell 312
Charles Austin Easterly 282
County Commissioner District 6**
(Vote for 2)
David L. Cartwright 208
Jeff Barger 134
Rodney W. Smith 117
Jerry G. Layne 116
Sheriff
Ronnie Hitchcock 2,242
Thomas Mahoney 884
Randy Phillips 656
Constable District 2
Craig C. Camp 295
A.L. Bice 168
James D. Hixson II 79