The results of two contested races for Athens City Council representatives and one school district issue were decided during the primary election Tuesday night.
Three Democratic candidates ran for an at-large seat on city council. Sarah Grace and Peter Kotses earned the most votes in the primary election, according to the preliminary results from the Board of Elections.
Kotses, an incumbent Democrat, and Grace, a local businesswoman who ran for State Representative in November, won about 32 and 33 percent of the vote respectively.
Arian Smedley, director of Integrating Professionals for Appalachian Children, a local non-profit, won about 24 percent of the vote. Karie Whitman, a graduate student at Ohio University, withdrew candidacy before the election, according to the Board of Elections.
Additionally, two people ran to be a council representative for the 3rd ward. Samuel Emerson Crowl, OU’s sustainability project coordinator, won the race against Eric Gunn, the owner of The Union Bar and Grill, 18 W. Union St.
Crowl said his ties with both the university and the city, where he grew up, would help him in office, according to a previous Post report.
The Alexander Local School District also refiled an income tax issue that did not pass in November, and did not pass during the primary election. About 1,159 people voted against the proposed earned income tax, according to the preliminary results.
About 55 percent of people who voted on the issue in November voted against the tax, according to the Board of Elections’ results. The issue would add a 1.5 percent tax on the earned income of people living in the district.
