Decision 2004: Macon County Commission Race Decided, For

July 06, 2004

The wait is over in Macon County. One week after the run-off election, there is finally a winner for the Democratic nomination for Macon County Commission Chairman.

Until Tuesday, incumbent, Jesse Upshaw clung to a five vote lead. That is when 6 provisional votes were counted. Since last week, Sheriff David Warren has watched over the ballots.

But in a surprise move, one of the votes was eliminated at the last minute. Patricia Clay is on the Macon County Board of Registrars. She says it was eliminated, "Because we do not have the proper identification for this voter and we had to say, do not count." When the count of the five ballots began, it did not look good for incumbent Jesse Upshaw, but after the first two votes things changed.

In the end, Harold Powell received three votes and Jesse Upshaw received two making Upshaw the winner by four votes. In all, Powell received 2,063 votes to Upshaw's 2,067. Upshaw, who was the only candidate to show up while the votes were counted, says, "I think that is simply an indication that we had two fine candidates vying for the office and the community was just split on who they wanted to serve in this position."

However, supporters of Harold Powell are not accepting this vote count as the end. One voter has signed papers already contesting the results. Macy Smith says she thinks Powell should have won.

Harold Powell's attorney is asking for a recount of all the "absentee" ballots because he says Powell won at the ballot box, but Upshaw won most of the absentee ballots. Powell is also checking whether any one broke the Democratic party rule by voting Republican in the primary but Democrat in the run-off.

Democratic nominee Jesse Upshaw is scheduled to face Republican Harvey Johnson in the November general election. The winner will take office seven days later.

WSFA
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