On Tuesday, the race for Miller County Sheriff was one of the most competitive in any Arkansas county this year.
Unofficial results show Stephen D. Ward advanced to the runoff in first place after he received 1894 votes, and Wayne Easley took the second slot in the runoff with 1620 votes.
The third-place finisher, Mark Lewis, received a very competitive 1506 votes on Tuesday. However, only the top two finishers are sent to the runoff.
Deputy Stephen Ward and Police Detective Wayne Easly can be seen in a November 2021 photo (above) when they bumped into each other and took a good-natured picture.
There is no Democrat challenger, so the Republican runoff winner will be the next Sheriff of Miller County, Arkansas, beginning in January 2023.
Mark Lewis may be out of the race, but Ward and Easley will definitely be jockeying to obtain his fifteen-hundred votes.
The reason? The direction Mark Lewis' voters are sent could be determinative for this election.
So this will be a closely fought runoff contest between Ward and Easley since there was a mixed verdict on Tuesday.
However, Tuesday's race for Sheriff was a surprisingly evenly-matched result, with three candidates receiving a vote of more than 1500.
That's democracy in action.
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