Donnie Pope Is Sheriff; Michelle Haddock Is Coroner; Carl Pennamon Is Only Returning Commissioner

More than 75 percent of Jasper County’s registered voters exercised their right to vote Tuesday, or before, and in doing so elected Donnie Pope sheriff.

Mr. Pope ended the night with nearly 4,100 votes to Gregory Sands 1,739. There were 100 write-in votes for sheriff. Charles Ledford was an official write-in candidate for Jasper County Sheriff.

In addition, long-time coroner Billy Norris was unseated by challenger Michelle Haddock, who won with a mere 51.64 percent of the vote. Mrs. Haddock, who ran on the Republican ticket received 2,929 votes, and Mr. Norris, a Democrat, received 2,770.

In the closest County Commission race, District 2, Republican Bruce Henry defeated veteran incumbent Charles Hill, 556-490.

In District 1, veteran commissioner Carl Pennamon received more than 77 percent of the vote to defeat challenger Nancy Baeder 915-270. Mr. Pennamon will be the only returning commissioner in January.

In District 3, Craig Salmon handily defeated Joan Bell, 874-281. All vote counts are unofficial at this time, and do not include provisional ballots.

{{more}}

Also, Jasper County voters narrowly defeated proposed constitutional amendment 1 for the implementation of a new charter school system, 2,971-2,845, but statewide 58.5 percent of the voters approved the amendment.

Jasper voters approved proposed amendment 2, by a margin of 55.25 percent to 44.75 percent. State wide 64 percent of voters approved the amendment.

There were 33.98 percent of registered voters that took advantage of early voting and 5.85 percent voted absentee.

Barack Obama will remain President of the United States for four more years, but Jasper County was partial to Mitt Romney according to Tuesday’s results.

Gov. Romney received 68.44 percent of the local vote and President Obama received 30.54 percent of the vote in Jasper County.

For State Senate District 25, Burt Jones won by a landslide on the local level, with 70.07 percent of the vote defeaing Darrell Black that took 29.84 percent of the votes locally. Mr. Jones won handily overall, but not by nearly the percentage that Jasper voters gave. For the district, he received 64 percent of the vote.

Several other items were on the ballot, though the only other contested races that Jasperites voted on were those of Public Service Commissioner.

Those results, as well as many more are available at the Georgia Secretary of State website.

Poll watchers study different things. Interestingly, in the uncontested races, political newcomer Angela Walsh received the largest “vote of confidence” by receiving 4,976 votes—the most of any candidate. Mrs. Walsh won the Republican primary and will be Jasper County’s new tax commissioner, as veteran Merry Faulkner is retiring.