By Kaitlin Hoskins, News Editor
Etowah County residents had the opportunity to vote in the primary election Tuesday, March 5.
Despite there only being a handful of local elections to vote on, just over 14,000 ballots were cast in Etowah County.
Voter turnout across the state was low at just 793,275 ballots cast out of 3,769,372 voters registered. Statewide, turnout was significantly lower than the 2020 primary election.
In 2020, out of 3,576,107 registered voters, 1,176,315 ballots were cast. That is a 12 percent drop in votes from 2020 to 2024.
While the 2024 turnout in the state came out to 21.05 percent, voter turnout in Etowah County was even lower at 18.50 percent.
In local races, Mike Rogers won the run for the 3rd Congressional District with 10,152 votes. Rogers beat out Bryan Newell (1,130 votes) and Barron Bevels (483 votes).
Matt Skelton won Place 2 District Court Judge with 7,367 votes against David King with 4,331 votes.
Skelton is a partner in Inzer, Haney, McWhorter, Haney & Skelton, LLC and practices corporate, juvenile, family and probate law in Etowah County. Skelton currently serves as the attorney for the Etowah County Sheriff’s Department as well as Big Oak Ranch, Inc. He believes his legal experience is what uniquely qualifies him to serve as district judge.
“I will always strive to be a judge Etowah County can be proud of, and more importantly, a judge my God, wife, and children can be proud of,” Skelton said.
For Etowah County Commission District 2, Johnny Grant won his bid for re-election after garnering 1,655 votes against Sue Holland’s 1,000 votes.
“It has been my great honor to serve the citizens of Etowah County for over 40 years as a law enforcement officer and for the past seven years as a county commissioner,” Grant said when he announced his re-election campaign.
Etowah County voters were nearly split equally over the proposed statewide amendment. They said “yes” to the amendment with 51.34 percent (6,422 votes) and said “no” with 6,086 votes.
In the other big-ticket race, the presidential race, former U.S. President Donald Trump secured the Republican ticket in Etowah County with 11,102 votes. The only other Republican candidate to reach votes in the thousands was Nikki Haley who garnered 1,182 votes. President Joe Biden won the Democrat ticket in the county with 1,234 out of 1,358 votes.
In Alabama, Biden won 165,567 votes out of 184,973 votes. Trump gained 486,883 votes out of 584,524 votes.
Overall, Alabamians voted against the proposed statewide amendment with 359,770 votes for “no” and 341,139 votes for “yes.”