Congratulations Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Chris Prine, and Justin Cabral!

Congratulations to Valdosta's new state rep for District 177 Dexter Sharper who won by 67% to 33% over opponent Glenn Gregory, who fought a spirited and clean campaign. I look forward to Representative Sharper meeting with the governor and working for our community without compromise under the gold dome in Atlanta.

I'll come back to the other statehouse races in a separate post. Ditto the other statewide races. Meanwhile, congratulations to some local winners below.

Congratulations new Lowndes County Commissioner for District 4 Demarcus Marshall, winning 64.91% to 35.09% after spirited debate and much agreement with opponent John Gates. I look forward to Commissioner Marshall grappling with education, jobs, tourism, and personnel down at the county palace.

Congratulations on re-election, Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine! Challenger J.D. Yeager fought a good fight, but the voters said 63.53% to 36.47% they did not want to go back to the previous administration. I look forward to Sheriff Prine continuing to protect the safety of all the citizens of Lowndes County, including those in the cities.

Congratulations Solicitor General Justin Cabral on retaining your post 51.56% to 48.44%! Very honorable mention to challenger Jason Cain, who canvassed himself pretty close to winning.

Congratulations Joyce Evans

for winning re-election unopposed to County Commssion District 1, and to John Page for winning his primary and for winning the general election unopposed for District 5.

Congratulations to new County Commission Chairman-elect Bill Slaughter on winning 53.85% to 46.17% over opponent Gretchen Quarterman. See other post for more information.

And congratulations to all the other unopposed winners. Although, why is it we have so many unopposed races, anyway?

Last, but certainly not least, congratulations to Lake Park former Mayor pro-tem and new Mayor-elect Eric Schindler for winning over Michelle Ina Lane 58.31% to 41.69%. Maybe this will end Lake Park's succession of mayors-of-the-week.

Mayor Schindler won by 51 votes. The more local the election, even more your vote counts. As the VDT noted today:

Lowndes County enjoyed a turnout of 75.84 percent as 38,829 of it's 51,198 registered voters cast ballots. The election results are not yet final and will be certified Friday by the Board of Elections.

The results of many a local election could have been different if those other 25% (including students) had turned out.

The county alcohol sales referendum passed 59.80% to 40.20%.

For the two statewide constitutional amendments, see Most corrupt state sells public education to Waltons.

All election results in this post were taken from Georgia Secretary of State web pages for statewide and Lowndes County 2012 general election results.

-jsq