Brown Re-elected in Tight Race, Blalock and Dixon in Runoff

ALACHUA – Alachua Commissioner Shirley Green Brown was narrowly re-elected to Seat 4 during the City of Alachua’s April 13 election. With 455 votes, Brown defeated opponent Gregory E. Pelham who garnered 431 votes, a slim 24-vote win for the incumbent Brown. The narrow margin handed Brown the victory with just 51.4 percent of the vote as compared to Pelham’s 48.6 percent of the votes counted.

Commissioner Gary Hardacre did not seek re-election to Seat 5, leaving the post open to three candidates. Tuesday’s election left no clear winner in that seat since none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the votes counted. That means two candidates are being sent into a run-off election slated for May 4, 2021.

Jennifer Blalock, Malcolm Vintron Dixon and Gary Kocher fought it out to try to reach the top spot in that race. By the end of a long election night, Blalock and Dixon received 44.1 percent and 29.8 percent respectively of the votes counted. Kocher, meanwhile, received 26.2 percent of the votes counted.

Blalock received 389 votes, Dixon received 263 votes and Kocher received 231 votes in Tuesday’s election.

The City’s election canvassing board voted not to count a handful of ballots after the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections determined that one ballot was cast by a person not registered to vote and another did not meet signature match criteria. A total of 886 votes were counted in Tuesday’s election.

The runoff election for Seat 5 between Jennifer Blalock and Malcolm Vintron Dixon is slated for May 4, 2021. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at each of the city’s three voting precincts, Legacy Park Multipurpose Center, the Cleather Hathcock, Sr. Community Center and the Clubhouse at Turkey Creek.

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