CORDELE — When the Dispatch went to press Tuesday night, all of Crisp County’s ballots had not been counted; therefore, some of the numbers that were printed in Wednesday’s paper have changed. The results remain the same, however.

In the contest between Chris Hughes and T. Harry Hurt for Superior Court judge of the Cordele Judicial Circuit, Hughes is the winner with 10,389 or 53.5% of the total vote. Hurt gained a total of 9,024 votes in the four counties that make up the circuit.

County by county, Hughes also was the winner in Ben Hill with 4,286 votes; Dooly with 1,883 votes and Wilcox where he gained 1,513 votes. He picked up another 2,707 votes in Crisp County.

Hurt took Crisp with 4,414 votes. He polled an additional 1,863 in Dooly; 1,419 in Wilcox and 1,328 in Ben Hill.

Republican Buddy Harden won his bid for State House seat #147, formerly held by Johnny Floyd. Harden’s total vote count in the five counties, portions of which are included in the district, was 10,083 or 56.6%.
His Democratic challenger, Roy Gibbs garnered a total of 7,732 votes or 43.4%.

All of Crisp County is included in the district, and Gibbs was a narrow winner there with 3,592 votes to Harden’s 3,469. Gibbs also took a majority of the Dooly County votes, gaining 1,316 while Harden polled 1,207.

Harden picked up 3,391 additional votes in Houston County; 1,357 in Pulaski and 659 in Worth. Gibbs’ totals in those counties were 1,597 in Houston, 946 in Pulaski and 281 in Worth.

Only one Crisp county position was contested on Tuesday’s ballot. Wallace Mathis won the Commission seat currently held by Ferrell Henry with a total of 3,330 votes. His opponent, Billy White finished with 2,010 votes.

Crisp voters helped Sanford Bishop retain his position as Georgia’s District 2 U. S. Congressman. Bishop who wound up with 157,762 votes in the entire district or 69% of the total defeated his Republican challenger, Lee Ferrell who polled 71,115 total votes.

Crisp County gave Bishop 4,589 votes while Ferrell picked up 2,497 local ballots. Another 2,683 votes for Bishop came from Dooly County whose voters gave 1,059 to Ferrell.

By Peggy King
peggy.king@gaflnews.com

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