Staff Writer

Almost 75 percent of the votes cast in Tuesday’s runoffs were in the District 4 and 5 Pike County Commission races.

With a total of 2,304 of Pike County’s 17,846 registered voters going to the polls, most of those were in favor of the two commission incumbents.

Unofficial results showed Democrat Ray Goodson, the District 4 commissioner, defeated Terry Sneed with over 58 percent of the vote. Goodson received 545 votes and Sneed received 388.

In the District 5 commission race, incumbent Charlie Harris, a Democrat, soundly defeated Jeff Baker. Harris received 516 votes (64.18 percent) and Baker received 288 votes.

The only other local race was for the Democratic nomination for the Pike County Board of Education District 5 seat.

Incumbent Willo D. Baker was defeated by Herbert Reynolds, who received more than 60 percent of the votes cast in that race. Reynolds’ total was 476 and Baker garnered 311 votes.

The fourth race on the Democratic ballot was for the State Board of Education District 5 seat. Ella Bell won with 853 votes (51.08 percent) over Latosha Brown, who received 817 votes.

Republican voters in Pike County and Alabama had only two races in which to cast ballots.

In Pike County, Ralph Long received 148 votes and Craig Pittman received 126 votes in the race for the Court of Civil Appeals, Place 1 seat.

Greg Shaw received 156 of Pike County’s votes while his opponent, Tony Riley garnered 99.

All the votes cast in Tuesday’s runoffs have to be certified by party officials before they become official.

Pike County Probate Judge Bill Stone said the runoffs were "relatively problem free" and the only reported problems were the "routine precinct concerns we always have."

Although he was happy there were no major problems, Stone said he was disappointed in the turnout.

"It’s sad to say, but it was not a bad turnout compared to the predictions," Stone said.

Alabama Secretary of State Jim Bennett had predicted between five and 10 percent of the state’s 2.3 million registered voters would go to the polls on Tuesday. The record low turnout of seven percent was set in the March constitutional amendment referendum.