ELECTION RESULTS: Voter turnout light in Tazewell

By JIM TALBERT\Staff
TAZEWELL – With only three contested races on the ballot and none of them county wide voter turnout was light in Tazewell County.
At Jeffersonville, the largest precinct in the Southern District 268 people had cast ballots at 10:40 a.m. In Adria where there was a school board race 63 people had voted at 10:30. Polls opened across the county at 6 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.
Election officials were expecting a good turnout in the Northwestern district where incumbent Democrat Earl Griffith was being challenged by Republican Seth White for the supervisors’ seat.  Republican Dave Anderson was running unopposed in the Eastern District supervisors’ race.
Democrat Bill Rasnick also had the luxury of running unopposed for the Northern District Supervisor seat. The Northern District had the only contested race for school board in the county. Incumbent Robert “Spot’ Steele is challenged by David Woodard.
Woodard, a Pocahontas resident operates the Pic-N-Save Supermarket just outside the corporate limits of Pocahontas.  The potential closing of Pocahontas High School was a big issue in that race.
The Northwestern and Eastern school board seats were also up for grabs but Mike Dennis and Cookie Johnson ran unopposed.
None of the constitutional officers had opposition although Sheriff H.S. Caudill faced a write in candidate. Barry Patton, who ran unsuccessfully four years ago, was appealing to voters in the western end of the county to write in his name.
The county’s state representatives also had little opposition. Democrat Phillip Puckett was unopposed for another term as the 38th district senator. Dan Bowling is unopposed for another term as the delegate from the third district.
The third district serves Buchanan County, all but two precincts of Tazewell County and three precincts in Russell County. Voters in the Graham and Springville districts did get to vote in the race for a state representative.
Sixth District Delegate Anne B. Crockett-Stark, a Republican was opposed by W.F. “Bill’ Thomas in that race.
The county’s most contested race had five people vying for three seats on the Soil and Water Conservation Board.
Seeking those seats were Bob Moss, Sandy Etter, Allen Hess, Edward Neel and Virginia Turley. Hess received 1,165 votes, Neel received 1,316, Etter received 2,381 votes, Howell received 988, Moss received 1,834 and Turley received 1,424. Etter, Moss and Turley claimed the seats.
Tazewell County is home to 26,684 registered voters. Of those, less than 5,000 voted in Tuesday’s General Election.
The final results looked like this:
Sheriff H.S. Caudill – 3,794 votes
Commissioner of the Revenue Emma Hagy – 3,923 votes
Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Lee – 3,908 votes
Treasurer Norman Cook – 4,014 votes
Clerk of the Circuit Court James E. “Buddy’ Blevins – 3,811 votes
Eastern District Supervisor David Anderson – 669 votes
Northern District Supervisor Bill Rasnick - 699 votes
Northwestern District Supervisor Earl Griffith – 555 votes; Seth White – 694 votes
Eastern District School Board Estelle “Cookie’ Johnson – 618 votes
Northwestern District School Board Mike Dennis – 780 votes
Northern District School Board Robert “Spot’ Steele – 483 votes; David Woodard – 615 votes
Third District House Dan Bowling – 3,128 votes – District wide – 10,246
Sixth District House Anne B. Crockett-Stark – 563 votes; W.F. “Bill’ Thomas – 304 votes – District wide Crockett-Stark received 9,220 votes; Thomas received 7,328.
38th District Senate Phillip Puckett – 3,755 votes District wide – 28,425