Stokes takes oath for eighth time on board
Stewart, left, swears to uphold the his duties in office
Karean Reynolds, left, takes the oath of office Wednesday
Stokes, left, takes oath of office for eighth time
Scottie Stewart and Karean Reynolds took their seats on the Escambia County (Ala.) Commission Wednesday adding two new faces to the board while David Stokes took the oath of office for his eighth term representing District 1.
Reynolds defeated District 5 incumbent Commissioner David Quarker 572 to 252 in the June Democratic Primary and did not face Republican opposition in last week's General Election.
Running on the Republican ticket, Stewart defeated long-term Democratic incumbent Larry White 1,511 to 1,201 in the Nov. 6 General Election to take the District 3 seat on the county commission. Commissioners are elected to four-year terms.
While other areas across the nation are still having problems counting last Tuesday's votes, especially in south Florida, Escambia County Judge of Probate Doug Agerton said there were no major issues in Escambia County.
"We had some machine malfunctions but no major issues," Agerton said. "Those were quickly resolved."
He said the humid weather apparently caused some of the paper ballots to swell, which were initially rejected by the voting machine.
"Overall, it was a really good election," Agerton said. "We had a lot of first-time voters."
Agerton said the county had registered 2,500 new voters since the last election two years ago..
Agerton credited the increase to the new Alabama law that allows Alabama residents to register to vote when the get a driver's license or renew their driver's license.
In last week's General Election 12,233 of the county's 25,634 registered voters cast ballots for a voter turnout of 47.72 percent.
Statewide, 1,721,906 votes were cast out of 3,457,572 registered voters for a voter turnout of 49.80 percent.
A handful of provisional ballots were added to the vote totals when county election officials certified last Tuesday's vote, with the most, seven, going to the Republican Party in strait party voting.
The official returns showed that 4,176 voters cast straight Republican votes and 2,924 cast straight Democrat votes.
Republicans made a big sweep across the county last Tuesday with the only Democrats being elected were the Democrats running without opposition. Those included Reynolds and Stokes on the county commission, Circuit Clerk John Robert Fountain, Judge of Probate Doug Agerton and Danny Benjamin to the Escambia County School Board.
