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District 1 runoff
Published 12:16pm Thursday, August 30, 2012District 1 city council candidates Michael Ransaw and Bobby Tapley will be on the runoff ballot Oct. 9 after having a tied number of votes in Tuesday’s municipal election, according to the Alabama League of Municipalities.
“They will go to the runoff Oct. 9,” said Lori Lein, ALM general counsel. “In the event the second election ends up in an exact tie, which is highly unlikely, the process is for the current council to select the winner.”
In order for one of the candidates to be declared a winner in a muncipal race, one candidate must receive 50 percent of the votes plus one. Both Tapley and Ransaw received 343 votes total.
Lein said the ALM has received several calls as of Wednesday afternoon from other municipalities inquiring about the rules for tie votes.
“I don’t know if it’s all that common – we’ve had calls today from at least three or four municipalities that have had ties in one of their seats,” Lein said. “But there were 400 plus municipalities who had elections yesterday.”
City Clerk Harriett Scott said she declined to comment on the District 1 race until she spoke to the candidates. Scott said the city would make its official announcement about the course of action in the race in Tuesday’s noon city council meeting.
Lein stressed that it would be very unlikely for the two candidates to tie again.
“I won’t say it’s never happened, but I’d be shocked if we had two ties back to back,” Lein said.
