For Lee Ann Turner, the wait to see if she would advance to a runoff in a tightly contested chancery judge race was “certainly not a fun process.”
It took a week for election commissioners in Oktibbeha, Webster and Chickasaw counties to determine Turner had finished second in the five-candidate race for District 14, Place 1 chancery judge on Nov. 6. She’s now in a runoff with first-place finisher Rodney Faver, a Starkville Municipal Court judge, that will be decided Nov. 27.
While Faver’s comfortable margin after election night ensured his campaign’s direction, Turner said her week wait meant holding off on campaign decisions.
“From the perspective of final decisions, they couldn’t really be made until we knew who was going to be in the runoff,” Turner told The Dispatch. “No one wants to spend more money if they’re no longer in the race. The delay, while unavoidable, is something that could have a bigger impact on the 21-day turnaround than it would if there was a longer timeframe, such as with the general election.”
With Tuesday’s updated count, Faver led the general election field with 5,017 votes.
Turner, a Starkville attorney, holds a 12-vote lead (4,797-4,785) over Elizabeth Fox Ausbern, with only five total no I.D. affidavit ballots left to possibly count by the end of today in Chickasaw, Oktibbeha and Webster counties.
Gene Barton and Todd Bennett finished fourth and fifth, with 2,757 and 741 votes, respectively.
Runoff campaign
Faver has already been out on the campaign trail trying to drum up votes for the runoff.
With a week of uncertainty as to who he was running against, however, he’s focused on selling himself rather than trying to pull votes from supporters of defeated candidates.
“I’m talking to everybody,” he said. “I’m not focusing on other candidates. I’m focusing on my qualifications. I’m not speaking negatively of any other candidate — never have, never going to. I’m just trying to explain to people why I’m running and why I feel the experience and qualities I bring make me the best candidate for the position.”
Turner said the close finish between Ausbern and herself speaks to Ausbern’s quality as a candidate. She added she is focusing on drawing Ausbern’s, Barton’s and Bennett’s voters to her camp.
“While they have every right, and it’s justified to be disappointed if their candidate didn’t make it, I think it’s more important to decide which of the two candidates (in the runoff) will be the better candidate,” Turner said. “It’s too important a position to vote just because you know a name. Especially if they supported someone else, they might not have looked into the other candidates yet.”
Faver and Turner said they believe the smaller field will help make the differences between the two candidates easier for voters to see.
But even then, the bigger challenge may be getting voters back to the polls on Nov. 27 — since runoffs historically garner much lower turnout than general elections.
“Come back out and vote and be heard, so that the majority of the voters can be heard on which candidate they want to have the privilege to hold this office,” Faver said.
Turner hopes the U.S. Senate runoff between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy should help draw people back.
“They have the big money to spend to remind people to go out and vote on Nov. 27,” she said. “They’ll get people to the polls. It’s up to us to make sure people know the importance of our race and are voting to make an educated choice.”
Ausbern did not respond to calls for comment by press time.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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