‘Battery issue’ delays Crawford County election results

Incumbents held on to the elected offices in Crawford County Tuesday night (Nov. 6) during the General Election and the Van Buren City Council welcomed a new member.

County Clerk Teresa Armer (D) retained her post handily with 56% of the vote to 44% for opponent Bridget Dodson (R), while County Tax Collector Kevin Pixley (R) had an easy time with opponent Sandy Cook, winning with 66% of the vote compared to just 34% for the Democratic challenger.

Circuit Clerk Sharon Blount ran unopposed receiving 16,392 votes, down from the 20,060 that were cast in the County Clerk and 19,986 in the Tax Collector races.
“I’m just very thankful for the voters that got out and voted for me. It’s been a privilege and an honor, and I want to thank everyone for their support,” Armer told The City Wire on Wednesday (Nov. 7).

Armer, discussing the upcoming challenges of her department, said the immediate future would include continuing preparations for the 2013 budget and “changing our coding on accounts payable from six to 12 digits” in time for the 2014 budget process, allowing the county to more specifically detail line items moving forward.

At the city level, the Van Buren City Council welcomed aboard newcomer Max Blake to the Ward 1, Position 2 post. Blake took 62% of the vote to 38% for opponent Doug Brooks. Final vote tallies were 3,572 for Blake and 2,171 for Brooks.

For Crawford County residents wondering about election night reporting results not being immediately available from the county website — early indications through Wednesday morning hours were that a general election race wasn’t even taking place —the cause was due to “a county laptop upstairs that didn’t work,” according to Tim Walker, a staff member in the Clerk’s Office.

Walker does readings for personal electronic ballots (PEBs) and uploads to the website, but a “battery issue” prohibited the action until Wednesday morning.

Nevertheless, votes were counted without any issues, Walker stated, and county staff “went home at 11:30” Tuesday night.