Some Races Decided, Some in Run Offs

LIBERTY, May 30, 2012 – After a very late night at the Liberty County Courthouse getting the election returns it appears that some races that face no opposition in the November General Election have been decided Tuesday night in the Republican Primary. Other races will be decided in a run off election.

It appears that current assistant DA Logan Pickett has won in the Republican Primary and faces no opposition in November and will be our next District Attorney following retiring DA Mike Little.

Incumbent County Attorney Wes Hinch handily defeated James Farmer, also faces no opposition in the Fall and will be our County Attorney for the next four years.

In the three way race for Liberty County Sheriff, Bobby Rader in a resounding victory, received 65.4% of the vote avoiding a run off election between himself and either of his challengers, Will Cox and closest competitor, incumbent, one term, County Sheriff Henry Patterson who received 24.0% of the vote.

In the race for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Unexpired Term of Bobby Rader, there will be a run off between Stephen Hebert and Darla Diaz.

Incumbent Constable Tim Allison will serve another term defeating A. W. Bowdoin and faces no opposition in the November General Election.

In the race for Constable, Pct. 3 it appears there will be a run off election between Danny Frankum and Tommy Koen for the position.

SPECIAL NOTE: During the reporting of returns on election night, Liberty County Clerk, Paulette Williams stated that in the Hardin Box there was a shortage of ballots in the Republican Primary and what she described as, "Emergency Ballots," were created by photocopying sample ballots. About 50 of the ballots were created for voters which could not be read by machine. Those ballots were tallied by hand. This made it impossible to create a summary sheet from the County Clerks Office so that i-dineout.com could check our entries. These summary sheets should be available on Wednesday and we will check our numbers again. If corrections are necesary in that voting box, there may not be a run off in this race. Our posted returns have not been checked with the benefit of an election summary sheet and they are unofficial.

In the race for Constable, Pct. 4 in the Dayton area is appears there will be run off between Robert “Robby” Earl Thornton, Jr. and Leroy Hanel. Incumbent Chad Pafford appears to have not made the run off.