Challenger Battles holds narrow lead over Senator Jones
By DONNA THORNTON, Editor
The race is over but the winner in state Senate District 10 remained undecided at press time, as unofficial tabulations found only 52 votes separating the current senator and an independent opponent.
The general election ballot in the district — which includes Etowah, Cherokee and southern DeKalb counties – pitted incumbent Republican Andrew Jones against challenger Jesse Battles, running as an independent.
According to the Alabama secretary of state’s website, unofficial results put Battles on top, with 20,341 votes to Jones’ 20,289.
But in Etowah County alone, Probate Judge Scott Hassell said, provisional ballots numbered in the 80s — more than the margin between the two candidates. When a voter comes to the polls and there is some question about voting eligibility — such as whether a residence is in the proper voting precinct, or the voter is properly registered, or if they don’t have proper identification — they may cast a provision ballot, which is sealed in an envelope. That means the ballot will be reviewed for eligibility, and if found to be legitimate, will be added to the vote totals.
DeKalb County Probate Judge Ronnie Osborn said he was on the phone to both Hassell and Cherokee County Probate Judge Tim Burgess the morning of Nov. 4, consulting about the provisional ballots. DeKalb County had 23, Osborn said, Cherokee had 28 and Etowah had 88.
However, Osborn noted, it’s likely that only a portion of those ballots will be counted. Based on past elections, out of those 23 provisionals in DeKalb, he said, maybe six would be found to be properly cast and counted toward the final vote total. And those could be split between the two candidates, he said.
Osborn said he wouldn’t expect the counting of provisional ballots to greatly change the ratio between the two candidates.
Hassell explained the process of dealing with provisional ballots. After the election, ballots were secured by the Sheriff’s Office and provision ballots were submitted to the Board of Registrars to be vetted one-by-one. The board will submit its findings to the county’s canvassing board, which was set to meet at noon Tuesday. The same process was to be carried out for DeKalb and Cherokee provision votes.
The canvassing board, Hassell said, is normally made up of the probate judge, the absentee election manager, and the sheriff. Because Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton was on this ballot, Hassell said, he will appoint someone else to serve on Etowah’s board. (DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden and Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver also ran for reelection.)
The board will vote on whether ballots should be counted. Ballots that are not counted will be sealed for the record; those that are counted will be opened and put into a voting machine to be tabulated and will be added to the vote totals for the candidate the voter had selected.
Hassell said those vote totals will be submitted to the secretary of state’s office.
