2 council races must wait week for results

Election officials said the delay is because of 11 provisional ballots that could make a difference in the outcome of the Council Place 2 and Place 3 races.

In the Place 2 race, Mary Ann Rippey finished with 63 votes to 62 for Don Owens.

In Place 3, Connie Parrish ended with 61 votes and Pamela Hardison got 55 votes.

“With 11 provisional ballots, those totals could change, which could change the outcome of the election,” said Killen Town Clerk Kelli Jefferies. “So, the votes will not be official until the provisional votes are counted.”

Jefferies said the provisional ballots have been turned over to the Lauderdale County Board of Registrars to review.

“We’’ll review the provisional ballots and have them back to Killen officials by Aug. 30, when they are to canvas the elections and finalize the vote totals,” said Jacqueline Knighten, of the Lauderdale County Board of Registrars office. “All votes are to be canvased that day at noon. We will have them to the Killen clerk prior to that.”

John Bennett, deputy chief of staff and communications director for the Alabama Secretary of State, said the board of registrars will determine the legitimacy of the provisional ballots.

“The ballots are to be reviewed to determine if the voters casting the provisional ballot are registered voters, and to make sure they should be voting in that race,” Bennett said.

“We’re going to make sure they are registered and active voters and they live within the Killen city limits,” Knighten said. “The ones that meet those requirements will be counted.”

She said the ballots themselves are kept at Killen Town Hall. Only the ones that are approved to be counted will be opened and counted on Aug. 30.

Bennett said provisional ballots are commonplace.

“It seems like they come into place more so during municipal elections than in county or state elections,” he said.

He said a voter can cast a provisional ballot if they don’t have a photo identification with them at the time they vote, or if they have incorrectly been left off the ballot.

Knighten said the local board of registrars gets its share of provisional ballots.

She said for the presidential primary election, they had more than 200 provisional ballots they had to review.