The day after the primary election day, Pine Bluff city council runoff candidates in Wards 1 and 3 are thankful to still be in the running.
The Ward 1 seat had a total of five candidates, but LaTisha Brunson led the votes with 578 followed by Danny Walker with 241.
Brunson was hoping she would have secured more than 50% of the vote in order to avoid a runoff but said she was still happy with the results.
"The votes were split because we had so many candidates," she said. "To still have 48% percent of Ward 1, to have that record number to support me as a first-time candidate, I couldn't be happier."
Walker said he too was glad that he was in the runoff and the field was narrowed down to two people.
"Now it's time for me to secure the seat and get more people involved," said Walker.
Walker said he was disappointed in the low voter turnout. According to Walker, there are over 5,100 registered voters in Ward 1, but only 1,200 showed up to vote.
"I'm very disappointed because when you talk to people in the streets, everybody is complaining about the street lights, but you don't want to even go to the polls," said Walker. "If you don't vote, you don't have a complaint."
Walker said he is looking forward to the challenge and to being able to debate his opponent.
Brunson said she wasn't going to take her lead for granted and was going to continue giving it her all.
I still got work to do," said Brunson, who spoke about her strategy to engage the community and the city.
"I think in the end we are really going to rally the people to come out and vote," said Walker. "Voting is important and it's your right."
Incumbent Ivan Whitfield led Ward 3 with 578 votes with opponent Lanette Frazier getting 406 votes and Quranner Cotledge with 227.
"I would have liked to win the election outright," said Whitfield, who, like Brunson, ended up with about 48% of the vote. "I was not happy that there was a runoff."
Whitfield said that while campaigning he worked hard going door to door in his ward, sending out post cards, emails and text messages.
"I was expecting a larger number of voters to come out," said Whitfield, who added that he was shocked by the poor numbers. "I was hoping for more."
Whitified said he was also shocked to see how he and Brunson had the exact same number of votes.
"Two different wards, the same amount of votes? When you look at that, that's very rare," said Whitfield. "It's one of those things that make you go hmm. That was very unusual."
Whitfield said he will be going back to the drawing board and hopes people come back to the polls and vote.
Frazier, who will be in the runoff with Whitfield, said she was honored to make it that far.
"The runoff affords me another opportunity to speak about supporting our students, growing our small businesses and making our community safer," said Frazier.
Fraizer said even though the voter turnout was not what she had expected, she was grateful for the voters that did turn out.
The primary runoff is June 21.
LaTisha Brunson and Danny Walker will runoff in Ward 1. Brunson led the votes with 578 and Walker with 241. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Eplunus Colvin)