ELECTION — Wilma Taylor, Tamekia Everett head to Beat 2 School Board Runoff

By Paul Keane

The Wayne County News

Two candidates in the Beat 2 School Board race are heading to a Nov. 29

runoff after Tuesday night's general election votes were counted.

Incumbent Wilma H. Taylor and Tamekia Everett will face off in that race

after none of the four candidates received more than 50 percent of the

total vote. Taylor brought home 427 votes, or 34.17 percent; Everett

finished second with 299 votes, or 23.9 percent; Lisa Taylor finished

third with 280 votes, or 22.3 percent; and Bettie Chapman Loper was

fourth with 236 votes, or 18.8 percent.

Taylor and Everett will be the only two candidates on the Nov. 29

ballot. Absentee voting will begin once ballots are prepared, and voters

needing to vote by absentee ballot will be able to do so on both the

Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

In the race for Beat 1 School Board, Aneita Beal-Norsworthy topped

incumbent Amy Crane Brown. Beal-Norsworthy earned 558 votes, or 52.39

percent, while Brown took home 503 votes, or 47.23 percent.

Beal-Norsworthy will take office near the end of the year or in early

January.

In the Beat 2 race, Wilma H. Taylor won the Big Rock precinct with 43

votes while Lisa Taylor and Loper each earned 25 votes and Everett

earned 19. In the City 2 precinct, Wilma Taylor and Everett tied for

first with 152 votes each while Loper had 86 and Lisa Taylor had 85.

In the Denham precinct, Wilma Taylor ran away with things, bringing home

142 votes to 94 for Lisa Taylor, 36 for Everett and 86 for Loper. In the

Winchester precinct, Loper won with 108 votes, followed by 92 for

Everett, 90 for Wilma Taylor and 76 for Lisa Taylor.

In Beat One, Brown won the Chicora precinct, 151-38; took the Buckatunna

box, 139-119; and won in State Line by a 198-153 margin. What carried

Beal-Norsworthy was her strong showing in the City 1 precinct, where she

routed Brown by a 248-15 margin.

In the race for the Fourth Congressional District in the House of

Representatives, Mike Ezell easily carried Wayne County with 3,895

votes, or 67.31 of the total. Johnny Dupree brought home 1,846 votes, or

31.9 percent of the total in the county. Alden Patrick Johnson was given

43 votes.

Totals were handled quickly by Election Commissioners and the Circuit

Clerk's Office. The first three boxes --- Denham, Winchester and

Diamond/Chaparral --- arrived at the courthouse at 7:32 p.m., with Clara

being the final box to come in and all vote totals being announced by

8:35 p.m.