Incumbents lead in tight school board races

The El Dorado School District Administration building is seen in this News-Times file photo.
The El Dorado School District Administration building is seen in this News-Times file photo.

Local residents across Union County vied for positions on the El Dorado and Strong-Huttig School Boards in Tuesday's election, which served as both a primary and a nonpartisan election.

There were 4,848 Union County registered voters who participated in the election. The final vote unofficial count was completed shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, but did not include provisional ballots, which will likely be counted later this week during a special meeting of the Union County Election Commission.

Incumbent Renee Skinner led in the race for the Zone 3 position on the El Dorado School Board with 129 votes as of Wednesday. Challenger David Taylor received 102 votes.

Most votes in the race were cast Tuesday, when Skinner received 69 and Taylor received 49. Two absentee ballots were cast for Skinner, along with 58 early votes, where Taylor received one absentee vote and 52 early votes.

Skinner was first elected to the El Dorado School Board in 2007.

In the race for El Dorado School Board's Zone 7 position, incumbent Todd Whatley led challenger Ashley Molnaird with 216 votes cast for him compared to 193 for her.

Whatley also garnered most of his votes on Election Day -- 142. Molnaird received 123 Election Day votes. Whatley also received three absentee votes and 71 early votes, while Molnaird received 70 early votes.

Whatley has served on the El Dorado School Board since 2011.

The Strong-Huttig School Board's Zone 5 and Zone 6 positions were also up for grabs in Tuesday's elections.

In the Zone 5 race, Sonya Manning led Carrie McHenry with 42 votes compared to McHenry's 37. Thirty-one votes were cast for Manning on Election Day, along with two absentee ballots and nine early votes, while McHenry received 36 votes on Election Day and one absentee vote.

Incumbent Edwin Boswell led the Zone 6 race with 34 votes, 23 of which were cast on Election Day and an additional 11 of which were early votes. Shaunessey Loggin trailed with 18 votes, 11 from Election Day and seven from early voting.

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