JONESBORO -- After tying in the primary election last month, Ray Kidd nearly doubled opponent Mike Cox's votes Tuesday in the Democratic runoff for the Craighead County District 13 justice of the peace seat.
There is no Republican opponent.
"I'm tickled, but I'm given out," Kidd said after his victory. "I spent the last week going door to door. I guess I knocked on more doors than [Cox] did."
Complete but unofficial results are:
Ray Kidd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
Mike Cox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The two Democratic candidates for the District 13 position each received 129 votes in the May 20 primary. Cox led that race by two votes after early and absentee ballots were counted, but Kidd pulled ahead after the first of six precincts was tallied. The two traded leads until tabulation of the sixth, and last, precinct resulted in the tie.
At first, Tuesday's race seemed headed for another tie: The two were deadlocked at 37 votes apiece after officials counted absentee and early votes.
"That made my heart skip a beat or two," Kidd said. "I had to pause for a minute. It did concern me."
Kidd said he was confident that when clerks counted ballots from his home precinct of Bay, he would receive enough votes to claim the victory.
Craighead County residents cast their votes on paper ballots in the runoffs Tuesday rather than on the county's electronic voting machines because of a mistake in the software that accompanies the ballot program.
The error was discovered last week during a test of the equipment, said Deputy County Clerk Jean Sisk.
It didn't slow the tabulation process, Sisk said. Only 391 people in the county cast early and absentee ballots in the runoffs along with Tuesday's voters.
"There wasn't a big turnout," she said. "It wasn't a problem."
Voters also braved the weather Tuesday, dodging rainstorms that have soaked the area for days.
"We had the election in the worst weather possible," Kidd said. "I went through a lot of umbrellas campaigning the past week."
State Desk on 06/11/2014