Bell, Huffman Likely To Meet In A Runoff For Dist. 17

The unofficial results from all four counties voting in the special election for State Senate District 17 has Democrat Chris Bell on top, but not by enough to win outright. With 38.35 percent of the vote, Bell will likely end up in a runoff with Republican Joan Huffman, who has at this point captured 26.17 percent of the vote.
As of 8:45 a.m. Nov. 5, 221 of 222 precincts have reported.
Democrat Stephanie Simmons trails Huffman with 13.81 percent, followed by Republican Austen Furse with 10.14 percent, Republican Ken Sherman with 7.47 percent and Republican Grant Harpold with 4.04 percent.
Earlier in the campaign, Bell fought to have Simmons, the only other Democrat on the ballot, removed due to residency issues. His campaign claimed that Simmons was put on the ballot by Republicans in an attempt to prevent Bell from receiving a majority of the votes, eliminating the need for a runoff.
“Their only hope of winning this race is to force a runoff, they (Republicans) can’t beat Chris Bell in November,” said Bell campaign spokesman Jason Stanford earlier in the campaign. “They’ve got to force a runoff and this is a desperate attempt to play politics…”