Wilson County unofficial primary election results are in

Abbey Nutter, The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn.
·2 min read

Mar. 9—Unofficial results from the March 5 primary election have been released for Wilson County.

"We do have 23 provisional ballots," Wilson County Administrator of Elections Tammy Smith said. "Nine of those marked a ballot in the Lebanon Special School District race. After research is done on these provisional ballots, there will be a provisional counting board that'll decide on whether those ballots count. Historically, very few provisional ballots count. Of the 23 (provisional ballots), it's possible maybe five counts."

The provisional counting board will meet on Monday to review the provisional ballots.

"Once we do that, certification is going to be on March 20," Smith said. "That's when the results will become official."

Donald Trump won the Republican primary election in Wilson County with 12,452 votes. Joe Biden won the Democratic primary election, with 1,986 votes.

Melissa Walker Lynn, an incumbent, won the Wilson County School Board Zone 3 Republican race, with a total of 1,435 votes. Walker's opposition, Joe Schippers, received 1,233 votes.

Donnie Self ran unopposed in the Wilson County School Board Zone 5 Republican race and received a total of 1, 512 votes. Brittany Ash, who ran unopposed in the Democratic race, received 234 votes.

Jamie Farough, an incumbent, won the Wilson County School Board Zone 7 Republican race with 1,329. Jessica Hill received a total of 986 votes.

Only one Republican candidate was on the ballot for Wilson County School Board Zone 1, which was Gregory Hohman. He received 1,608 votes. No Democratic candidate qualified for the election.

The county general election will be Aug. 1, which is when the candidates for the Wilson County School Board will appear on the ballot.

"We do have one independent in Zone 1 that will be running against the nominee from the election," Smith said. "Again, we hope that everybody gets out and votes. Every election is important, whether it's school board or whether it's the presidential election. Everybody should vote on every election because somehow, they all affect you."

The Lebanon Special School District Republican race was close, with 1,771 votes for Heather Sadler Gallaher, and 1,767 votes for Dusty Jones. No Democratic candidates qualified for the ballot.

"We had a total of 18,759 votes, for an 18.36% turnout," Smith said. "It's a low turnout, but we had a really busy day (Tuesday)."

Smith said that while every election is different depending on what's on the ballot, this week's turnout is typical of a primary election.

"In the last presidential preference primary, we voted 21,855, so this time it was a lower percentage," Smith said.

Smith said that this year's primary election went smoothly.

"Our poll workers are the ones that always pull this off," Smith said. "They do a great job and we have over 300 poll workers that work each election. Depending on the election, we may have 350."