Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Chambers County saw the highest voter turnout in recent memory with 55 percent voter participation, according to County Probate Judge Paul Story.

Turnout across the state was quite high with 65 percent voter participation, according to Story.

“But 55 percent is an amazing turnout compared to what we’ve seen normally in the 20 to 25 percent,” Story said, “So [I’m] certainly very thankful for the turnout yesterday that we had for the 2024 general election.”

In a primary election, turnout is on average around 20 to 25 percent in presidential years.

Story said turnout has been as low as 15 percent in the past.

“When it comes to presidential elections, you’re going to see your higher turnouts,” Story said. “We’ve been in the mid-30s to 40s before, so this being 55 percent was an excellent turnout for us.”

This November, 14,299 ballots were cast including absentee ballots and election day voting.

Though voter turnout is always the highest during a presidential election, Story said the Chambers County School District superintendent race also brought out record numbers of voters.

“That has been a very heated race over the past year, so that was obviously going to be a determining factor in the turnout of our voters in Chambers County,” Story said. He added, “I think that it was just the perfect chemistry to have a good turnout.”

Dr. Sharon Weldon won the superintendent race over Dr. Winford Ashmore with 10,007 votes, more than both the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates.

That also represented the highest number of votes for a local race candidate.

By contrast, Ashmore received 3,976 votes, which was 28 percent of the total votes.

Meanwhile, the presidential race was a tighter race with Donald Trump winning the county with 8,704 votes (61 percent) to Kamala Harris’ 5,402 votes (38 percent).

As for the CCSD District 1 race, Democrat candidate Reco Newton won with 934 votes at 55 percent against his opponent Republican candidate Carolyn Danyel Peters with 765 votes.

Candidates who ran uncontested and were re-elected are CCSD District 3 board member LaShae Herring, Circuit Clerk Lisa Burdette and Commissioners Sam Bradford, Charlie Williams and Doug Jones.

The results do not include provisional ballots, which are used when a voter’s registration is uncertain at the polling place. According to Story, the ballots will be verified over the next few days and then reviewed by the election board.

The election board is made up of Story, Sheriff Jeff Nelson and Burdette as well as a member of the executive board of each party, the Democratic and Republican Party.

“There was a higher volume of provisional ballots. Some of that was related to the fact that individuals came to vote as it was an important day to vote, but were not registered prior,” Story said. “And certainly there’s at no point in time a means for us to refuse anyone to vote.”

Currently, the board of registrars is working to validate the provisional ballots from each precinct, which will be reviewed next Tuesday.

The post-election audit bill introduced in the last legislative session did not pass through the Senate.

Story acknowledged the voters, poll workers and the sheriff and local law enforcement for their help in keeping a stressful day from getting even more stressful.

“I would like to thank our citizens for the turnout, and also our poll workers for the great work ethic that they showed on election day. It was a long day, it was a stressful day, as it always is, because elections are so very important and so very scrutinized,” Story said.

In addition to the turnout, Story thanked the voters of the county for their “camaraderie” at the polling places that saw long lines and wait times.

“We had moments where there were probably 300 to 400 people in line during our busier times, waiting to get in and cast, and everybody was patient and understanding,” Story said.