With one day to go before the end of the early voting period on Saturday for the District 95 special state House primaries, voter turnout remains sluggish — but one-sidedly Republican
Totals released on Friday by the Shelby County Election Commission show that 1799 total votes, representing 3.5 percent of those eligible to vote in the district, have been cast at the several early voting locations. That breaks down to 1639 votes in the GOP primary, which has 7 contestants overalll, and 160 votes in the Democratic primary, where the only contestant is Julie Byrd Ashworth.
Ashworth is assured of a place on the June 15 general election ballot, along with independents Robert Schutt and Jim Tomasik. The seven Republicans competing for the right to appear on the general election ballot are (alphabetically) Joseph Aaron Crone; Gail W. Horner; Curtis D. Loynachan; Missy Marshall; Billy Patton; Frank Uhlhorn; and Kevin Vaughan.
Purpose of the special election process is to replace former state Rep. Mark Lovell, who resigned his seat in February.
Regular primary voting will conclude on Thursday, April 27.
