Donna Thornton donna@southerntorch.com

Challenger Brent Rhodes defeated incumbent Terry Harris to win the District 2 seat on the DeKalb County Commission by a margin of less than 50 votes, in unofficial election results posted on the Alabama Secretary of State’s website.

The contest between Rhodes and Harris was the only party primary race to go to a runoff.

Vote totals were:

Harris – 638 votes – 48.41%

Rhodes – 680 votes – 51.59%

A total of 1,319 ballots were cast, out of a total of 10,390 registered voters in District 2.

That tabulates to a 12.69% voter turnout.

DeKalb County Republican Party Chairman David Gulledge said the turnout was a bit surprising – in a good way. He said prior to the Tuesday vote, he thought the party would be lucky to see a 10% turnout.

Rhodes received the largest number of votes in the three-candidate primary race, with 40.71% of the vote to Harris’ 35.72%.