The Christian County Board of Elections drew ballot positions for nonpartisan candidates in the November general election during a meeting Thursday at the courthouse.
A candidate’s position on the ballot may have little to no consequence in races with only two candidates. However, longtime election observers believe there can be an advantage to a higher ballot position in races with several candidates.
“It’s important if you are the first of nine,” said Kem, who had that exact experience as a candidate for county magistrate in 1994. He considered himself lucky with a draw that made him the first of nine candidates listed on a primary ballot. He won the race.
The tradition of drawing for ballot positions relies on a set of small numbered balls, also called pills.
For each race, Kem pours a number of pills equal to the number of candidates into a coffee mug and invites someone to pull the pills one by one from mug.
Election board member Jason Newby, who is the chief deputy for the Christian County Sheriff’s Department, pulled the numbers on Thursday.
In each race, a pill is pulled for each candidate, beginning with the candidate who first filed to run.
Only two candidates were present for the drawing — Oak Grove Mayor Theresa Jarvis and school board candidate Dan Mason, who filed for the office after losing his bid to be the Republican nominee for judge-executive in the May primary.
Here are ballot positions that were drawn for the nonpartisan races:
Christian County Board of Education
District 3
- Lindsey Clark
- Felicia Howard
District 5
- Tom Bell
- Dan Mason
Oak Grove Mayor
- Jackie Oliver
- Theresa Jarvis
Oak Grove City Council
- Richard Baker
- Janet Edwards
- Lloyd “Andy” Walters
- Jean Leavell
- John Campbell
- Isaiah Spencer
- Edward T. Cook
- Rakim Barrett Sr.
Crofton City Council
- Wanda Croft
- Anthony G. Durham
- Gregory Paul Owen
- Wendall R. Alexander
- Reta Renee Fleming
- James E. Grace
LaFayette City Commission
- Autumn Nichole Hamilton
- Jacob Mason
- Norma Banks
- Sandra Torress
- Stephen C. Stites
- Timothy Hancock
Pembroke City Commission
- Whitley Grace
- Joe. T. Rives
- Walter W. Bell
- Joseph Wayne Stealy
- Karen Mitchell Pyle
In Crofton and Oak Grove, the six candidates with the most votes will be elected. In Pembroke and LaFayette, four candidates are elected.
The general election is on Nov. 8.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
