Grantham ready to take on mayoral role
Apr. 7—SALTILLO — Affidavit ballots trimmed Copey Grantham's lead to 13 votes Wednesday afternoon but did not stop him from effectively winning the Saltillo mayor election.
Since there are still six absentee ballots outstanding, city clerk Mary Parker refused to call the election on the advise of the Secretary of State's office.
"Because of the closeness of the race and the fact there are still outstanding ballots, the Secretary of State's office said they would not call it," Parker said.
She noted that someone could still contest the election or call for a recount.
Two-term incumbent Rex Smith chose not to observe as the Republican Municipal Executive Committee counted the affidavit votes. He did not respond to questions Wednesday to see if he plans to challenge the election.
Even through the race will not be certified until next Tuesday, the deadline for the absentee ballots to arrive in the mail, Grantham said he is ready to start crafting his administration.
"We feel good about the numbers and I am excited to get to work for the city of Saltillo," Grantham said. "I want to be ready to start off strong as soon as I take office in June."
He plans to work on the city's transparency by eliminating most called special meetings. Grantham wants to switch the board of aldermen back to two regular meetings a month and to live-stream the meetings.
"I want the citizens to know when we are meeting so they can see how we are spending their tax dollars," Grantham said.
To improve the relationship between the city and the citizens, he wants to make city hall more open. That includes opening the building during the lunch hour so people can run errands during their lunch hour.
"I want to run the city more like a small business than a government," Grantham said.
On election night, Grantham held a slim 483-467 vote lead over Smith with 16 affidavit ballots to be sorted through. Only five of those were by people who lived in the city limits and were registered voters. Of the 11 ballots thrown out, six people lived in the city but were not registered voters.
The five extra ballots moved the mayoral totals to 484-471.
The affidavits also changed the totals in the aldermen races, but did not affect the rankings.
Brian Morgan still led the way with 474 votes, followed by incumbents Scottie Clark (473) and Terry Glidewell (396). Those three received mathematical majorities and have been elected.
The next four finishers — Dylan Whitt (343), Sonya Hill Witcher (340), incumbent Craig Sanders (318) and former alderman Scott Knight (276) will compete in the April 27 run-off for the remaining two aldermen seats.
Also running for alderman were Ron Cottom (240), incumbent Donald Cullum (235), Bill Monaghan (216), George "Dinky" Crowder (202), Brandon Bailey (145), Brandon Sanders (113, an Gene Echols (102).
