Staff Writer

June 7, 2000 10 PM

Only 25 percent of Pike County’s registered voters went to the polls to vote in either the Republican or Democratic Primaries, but that’s five percent better than the state average.

According to the Board of Registrars, there are 17,775 registered voters in Pike County, and 4,342 of them voted on Tuesday.

More than half of those votes (2,810) were cast in the Democratic Primary. Just over 35 percent cast 1,525 votes in the Republican Primary. Seven nonpartisan votes were cast.

In line with Secretary of State Jim Bennett’s prediction, only about 22 percent of Alabama’s 2.2 million registered voters went to the polls in Tuesday’s primary election. Bennett had predicted between 20 and 30 percent would go to the polls.

Tuesday night, Probate Judge Bill Stone knew turnout was low.

"Although there was a lot of interest in some of the races, the election didn’t create much interest countywide," Stone said.

But, those in Pike County who did vote were pretty much in line with the rest of Alabama.

Pike County residents who voted in the Democratic Primary cast over 82 percent of their votes for presidential candidate Al Gore. Over 12 percent of the votes cast were undecided and almost five percent were for Lyndon LaRouche Jr. In Alabama, Gore received 77 percent of the votes with 17 percent being uncommitted and six percent voting for LaRouche.

Republican George W. Bush has the big win both locally and statewide. Bush received over 92 percent of the local votes and 85 of the votes in Alabama. Alan Keyes received12 percent of Alabamians’ votes and less than five percent of those cast in Pike County. Of those who voted in the GOP Primary, four percent of the state’s voters were undecided as were over two percent of those in Pike County.

In the Democratic race for United States Representative for the Second Congressional District, Charles Woods won here with 77 percent of the vote over Joe Fondren. Woods will face incumbent Terry Everett in November. Everett was unopposed.

The most discussed race in Alabama was the one for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court’s Republican nominee.

In Pike County, Roy Moore with 40.30 percent and Harold See with 40.58 percent were neck and neck when the votes were counted. Pam Baschab received almost 14 percent of the local votes, followed by Wayne Thorn, who received just over 5 percent. Moore, who will face Democrat Sharon Yates in November won the GOP nomination with 55 percent of the votes. See received 30 percent, followed by Baschab with eight percent and Thorn with seven percent.

Civil Appeals Place 1 candidates Ralph Long and Craig Pittman still have a run off to determine the GOP nominee. Long received 29 percent of Alabama voters’ support and Pittman received 25 percent of the votes cast. Locally, Long had 22.26 percent and Pittman had 25.98 percent of the votes behind Tommy Bryan, who received over 30 percent of Pike County votes.

The Civil Appeals Place 2 Democratic nominee will be Henry Steagall III, who received 52 percent of the votes cast in Alabama. His opponent, Janie Clarke received 48 percent. Pike County gave Steagall over 57 percent of the vote.

Gene Reese won the Democratic nomination for the Civil Appeals District 3 race by getting 57 percent of Alabamians to vote for him. His opponent was Donna Smalley. Steagall received 57.88 percent of the votes in Pike County.

Republicans Tony Riley and Greg Shaw will have a run off to determine the nominee for the Court of Criminal Appeals Place 1 race. Shaw received 43 percent of the votes statewide and abut 35 percent of the votes in Pike County.Riley received 34 percent of the votes in Alabama and over 38 percent of those cast here. Don Mansell received 23 percent of the statewide votes and just over 26 percent of the votes cast in Pike County.

Kelli Wise is the Republican nominee for the Court of Criminal Appeals Place 2 race. She received 53 percent of the votes in Alabama and also won here with 65 percent. Her opponent was David Estes.

Republican Alice Martin will face Sue Bell Cobb in the Criminal Appeals Place 3 race. The Democrat received 69 percent of the votes cast in her primary across the state and 68 percent of the votes in Pike County. Martin received 57 percent of those in the Republican Primary and almost 55 percent of the local votes. Cobb’s opponent was Yvonne Henderson Saxon and Martin ran against Billy Joe Sheffield.

Run off elections will be held June 27. The General Election is Nov. 7.