Reynolds wins; Stuart ousted

Atmore resident Karean Reynolds will take a seat at the Escambia County Commission table and Atmore native Lyn Stuart will be leaving the Alabama Supreme Court following Tuesday's primary elections that set up a November showdown between Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and Democrat Walt Maddox.

In the only local race on the Escambia County ballot, Reynolds defeated incumbent District 5 Commissioner David Quarker 572 to 252. Reynolds received 69.42 percent of the vote. Reynolds will take his seat on the commission in November.

"I feel exhausted," Reynolds said Wednesday. "It was a long night out picking up signs."

Reynolds, who serves as coordinator for the Escambia County Children's Policy Council, said he decided to seek the commission seat to get community leaders involved. He faces no Republican opposition in November.

As coordinator of the children's policy council, Reynolds said he sees first hand many of the issues that affect a community like poverty, education, crime rates and drugs.

"Knowing how to address these problems will help the community," he said. "We need leadership in the community to address these problems."

Quarker is currently serving his second four-year term on the commission.

"It is what it is," Quarker said. "There's no reason to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. He beat me out in my own community, that tells a lot."

"But I'm all right," he said. "It's been a pleasure to serve on the commission. I enjoyed working with my fellow commissioners even when we disagreed. I'll miss them."

"Everything will work out," Quarker added. "I wasn't hung up on the title, I was there to help the people and I'll continue to help the people. I'll walk away with my head up."

Supreme Court

Stuart, who was appointed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court following Judge Roy Moore's ouster, did well in her native county but failed to win the job at the ballot box with Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker winning the Republican Primary 259,311 to 243,659 in unofficial returns. Parker received 51.56 percent of the vote to Stuart's 48.44 percent.

In Escambia County, Stuart defeated Parker 2,243 to 812 while taking 73.42 percent of the votes.

Escambia County mirrored the state in both the Republican and Democratic primaries for governor with Maddox claiming the Democratic nomination over five challengers with 154,559 votes or 54.60 percent. Ivey also won the Republican primary without a runoff, defeating four challengers with 330,743 votes or 56.10 percent.

In Escambia County, Maddox received 889 votes or 52.98 percent and Ivey received 2,564 votes or 76.29 percent.

County wide 5,164 ballots were cast in Escambia County with 3,370 voting in the Republican Primary and 1,794 voting in the Democratic Primary. Although still unofficial, 20.59 percent of the 25,081 registered voters in Escambia County turned out to vote Tuesday.

Statewide, 897,496 of the 3,377,902 registered voters cast ballots for a 26.57 percent voter turnout.