One incumbent was upset and two incumbents won re-election in school board races on the ballot in Marion County.
In District 3 of the Marion County School Board, incumbent Jessie D. Graham received 606 (56 percent) votes versus Lonnie Ball Sr.’s 471 (44 percent).
In District 4 of the county school board, incumbent Wendy Hammonds tallied 664 (53 percent) votes while David Foxworth had 580 (47 percent).
In the city of Columbia outside district, Chris Wallace defeated incumbent Dr. Ronald Luethje with 749 votes (53 percent) to 658 votes (47 percent). That’s based on unofficial returns from Tuesday night that included all 22 precincts, plus absentee ballots, but not 212 provisional ballots that remained to be verified and counted beginning Wednesday. Many of those ballots were not from the city outside district.
Wallace’s strong performance in Goss proved to be the difference in the race. He won that precinct by 92 votes, which was enough to claim the overall election by 91 votes.
“I want to thank everybody for their support, love and prayers,” Wallace said Thursday. “I’m looking forward to keeping the momentum going in the Columbia School District. I’ll be joining a great team of school board members and I’m ready to get the job started.”
Wallace’s first meeting on the board will be the Jan. 17, 2019 meeting at the Columbia High School multipurpose room.
“I’m thankful that I’ll be a part of the great momentum that has been going for the last few years in the Columbia School District,” he said.
Wallace is not the only new face on the Columbia board, with Eric Lucas having been appointed to replace David McCance when McCance resigned in June. That position is appointed by the Columbia Board of Aldermen, while others are elected.
