With the official vote count tallied and canvassing complete, the city commission will have three newcomers sworn in on Dec. 2. Challenger Lisa Moody held off incumbent Charlie Perdue by seven votes for the third commission seat after 22 provisional ballots and seven mail-in ballots were added to Election Day preliminary totals. Moody joins top vote getter Abby Bartlett, who finished with 813 votes, and J. David Farris, who had 731 votes. Moody finished with 631 votes.
Bartlett and Farris each fill four-year terms, and since Moody received the third-highest number of votes, she will have a two-year term.
Perdue ends in fourth place with 624 votes, four years after being the top vote getter in the 2015 city election. He actually had more votes this year than he did in 2015, but an increase in voter turnout this year allowed the other three candidates to succeed.
Another incumbent, David Hausmann, finished fifth with 537 votes. Luke Jesnowski was sixth with 420 votes and former commissioner Bill Murphy was seventh with 413 votes.
In years past the new commissioners would have to wait until January to be sworn in, but a state law change this past year allows cities to move that up to the first meeting in December if they choose. That means Bartlett, Farris and Moody will be sworn in on Dec. 2, and the commission will re-organize during that meeting, voting on a new mayor and vice mayor.
There were 2,251 voters countywide who participated in this election, which also had other municipalities and school board races on the ballot. Voter turnout this year was 19.6%.
The vote tallies by precinct is available here.