Tennessee voters in Cleveland, Marion County and Tracy City passed alcohol-related referendums Tuesday, and voters there and in three other counties chose leaders in nine municipalities Tuesday.
Results still must be certified by county election commissions, provisional ballots have not been tallied, and in Meigs County the uncounted ballots include property rights voters, so results are unofficial for the time being.
In Grundy County, a tornado that tore through early on Election Day damaged homes and knocked out power all over the county.
"Seven of our 10 precincts were dramatically affected by the storm," Grundy County Administrator of Elections Gary Miller said Wednesday as clouds moved in again. "We had generators at six of the locations and at my office, too."
Miller toured precinct sites with emergency management officials to get power sources established in time for voters to cast ballots. Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties also had storm damage that forced officials to use alternative power sources at one precinct in each county, officials said.
LIQUOR IN STORES, BY-THE-DRINK
In Bradley County, Cleveland voters passed a ballot referendum allowing package liquor stores, with 4,887 votes in favor of the measure and 3,762 against. In Marion County and Tracy City, voters passed referendums allowing liquor by the drink. The vote in Marion was 6,081 in favor and 2,754 against, and in Tracy City the tally was 247 votes for and 175 against, according to elections officials in those counties.
GRUNDY
The two-way race for Tracy City mayor went to Nadene Fultz Moore, who had 247 votes to opponent Larry Phipps' 173 votes, and in the five-way race for two Tracy City alderman seats, Stacie Hutcheson and Sara Griswold Brown, with 254 votes and 180 votes, respectively, outdistanced Seth Layne's 135, Brandon Parson's 133, and George DeMotta's 79.
Despite the storm damage, Miller said, voters still turned out in large numbers, though he said bad weather probably had some impact.
"We voted right at 50 percent - 49.3 percent," he said. "That's as good an election as I can remember us having."
MARION
In the three-way race for two Jasper alderman seats, Jason Turner had 682 votes and Mac Bumpus had 637 votes to outpace Leon A. Rash's 556 votes.
For two Kimball alderman seats, Teresa Lofty Childs, with 295 votes, and Johnny Sisk, with 367 votes, defeated Renae Keef, who had 197.
Marion County's election office also tallied the four-way race for two alderman seats in Monteagle, which actually lies in Grundy, Franklin and Marion counties. Rebecca "Becky" Byers, with 250 votes, and Anthony "Tony" Gilliam with 249, beat out Anna L. "Susie" Zeman and Ronald M. Terrill, who had 179 and 167, respectively.
In the three-way race for the District 4 South Pittsburg City Commission seat, Matt Stone, with 113 votes, defeated Paul Don King, who had 50 votes, and Delorah Starkey, who had 43.
In the battle for two Whitwell City Commission seats, Matt Dillon and Joshua Eggert-Michael, with 257 votes and 216 votes, respectively, won out over William K. Adams' 134 votes.
Marion County Administrator of Elections Kira Inglis said there were 9,288 ballots cast out of the county's 17,200 or so registered voters.
"I'm pleased with the turnout," Inglis said.
McMINN
In an eight-way race for three Athens City Council seats, Bo Perkinson had 1,594 votes, Mark Douglas Lockmiller had 1,591 and Adolphus "Dick" Pelley had 1,469 to outdistance Jason Pickel's 1,354, Frances Witt-McMahan's 1,360, Yvonne Raper's 1,098, Tracy Carter's 831 and Joseph "Tom" Holmes' 541 votes.
In the four-way race for Calhoun City Commission, the two candidates leading with provisional ballots still to be counted are Donna Goad with 108 votes and Sandra Day with 88, while Misty Senters had 79 and John Walker 68. Since the number of votes is so small, uncounted provisional ballots could change the outcome of the race, elections officials said.
Voters in the McMinn County District 3 race for school board chose Donna Sue Maxwell Casteel over Jonathan E. Lee, 1,319 votes to 1,253, and write-in candidate Kathy Dougherty, who drew 298 votes.
"It was heavy for a midterm," McMinn County Administrator of Elections Kris Williams said. "We had planned on it being heavy, but we still found ourselves having to send supplies to some polling places."
A total of 16,121 voters cast ballots out of the county's estimated 31,000 registered voters, she said.
MEIGS
In the race for Decatur mayor and three Decatur alderman seats, Jeremy Bivens took the mayor's race, 296 to 156, over John Wayne Irwin Jr., and Ray Melton, Becky Haney and John R. Myers - with 308, 292 and 287 votes, respectively - won out over Jason L. Kirk's 174 votes in a four-way battle.
Meigs County Administrator of Elections Judy McAllister said turnout there stood at 3,865 of 7,503 registered voters, not including property rights or provisional ballots.
"It was a busy day," McAllister said Wednesday.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.