New city commissioners win in tie vote

Aug. 11– In today's extraordinarily low turnout election pitting three candidates in a race to fill two seats on the Savannah City Commission for the next three years, the winners received an identical number of votes.

The city's new commissioners are businessman Kent Collier, who owns the McDonald's restaurant in Savannah, and Wesley Wilkerson, a teacher for the Hardin County public school system. They replace Phillip Lay and Michael Davis, who declined to run for another term.

 

Wilkerson and Collier each received 223 votes, the Hardin County Election Commission reported less than an hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Former Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper Andre Orr finished out of the running with 106 votes.

With 4,007 citizens registered to vote in Savannah, just 314–less than 8 percent–went to the polls.