Smith wins BOE Post 5, Gurtler takes District 8 seat

By Shawn Jarrard

Dr. Kilee Smith defeated Nathan Noblet in the Tuesday, July 26, Nonpartisan Runoff Election, and will assume Post 5 on the Towns County Board of Education in January 2017.

Smith won 678 votes, or 52.4 percent of the 1,294 ballots cast, to Noblet’s 616 votes, a difference of 62 votes.

In the May 24 Nonpartisan Primary, Smith received the most number of votes, garnering 38.1 percent of ballots cast in a three-person race. No one had a majority of the votes in the primary, however, which necessitated the July 26 runoff race between Smith and the second highest vote getter, Noblet.

And in the July 26 Republican Primary Runoff Election, Matt Gurtler won against rival Kent Woerner, winning in Towns County with 726 votes to Woerner’s 448 votes. Gurtler also won in Union County, 1,471 votes to 493, and in White County, 154 votes to 109.

Woerner bested Gurtler in Rabun County, taking 1,186 votes to Gurtler’s 1,125, but overall, Gurtler won the election with 60.85 percent of the votes in the four-county district, having earned 3,476 votes to Woerner’s 2,236 votes.

Gurtler will not be facing any Democratic or Independent challengers in November, and will assume his role as 8th District State Representative in January, a seat held for eight years by Rep. Stephen Allison of Blairsville, who announced earlier this year in February that he would not seek re-election.

For more election coverage, check out the Wednesday, Aug. 3, edition of the Towns County Herald.

Totals by precint can be found HERE.