Cairo ousts Farris

CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo voters rejected Mayor Paul Farris' bid for a second term Tuesday while at the same time nominating three incumbent city council members for new terms.

The closely watched primary election -- observers were on hand from the Illinois Attorney General's office and the state Board of Elections -- was the voters' verdict on four years of bitter fighting between Farris and a council majority that fought him on most major issues.

In the voting for mayor, Judson Childs ran away with first place and will face Karl Klein in the April 17 general election. Klein narrowly edged Cairo school board president Joe Griggs and Farris for second place in the balloting.

Klein said he's ready to work with whoever voters choose for the council.

"I think it will work out pretty good," he said.

Farris declined to talk about his feelings upon learning of his loss. "I can't put four years in a one- or two-sentence statement," he said.

Childs received 440 votes to 170 for Klein. Griggs received 147; Farris won 142. Three hundred and twenty-four votes were scatted among six other candidates.

Voters chose nominees for six council seats as well. In a citywide race for a councilman-at-large position, Linda Jackson received 529 votes and will face James Conroy, who received 466 votes. Conroy is a former coach at Cairo High School; Jackson is currently on the council. Three other candidates garnered 168 votes.

"Just having a new mayor is helpful in itself," Jackson said. "You can work with a mayor. You can't work with a dictator."

The two other council members sought new terms. Elbert "Bo" Purchase, who was top vote-getter in Ward 1 with 126 votes, will face James W. Holder, who received 101 votes. Purchase is the senior member of the city council. Councilwoman Sandra Tarver came in second in Ward 3 with 48 votes and will face Lorenzo Nelson, who received 50 votes.

"I know there are going to be changes for the betterment of Cairo," Tarver said.

New council members will be elected from wards 2, 4 and 5. In Ward 2, Kathy McAllister, with 101 votes, will face Thomas Simpson, who received 79 votes. In Ward 4, Richard Pitcher, was the top vote-getter with 161 votes and will face Thomas Burris Jr., who received 96 votes. In Ward 5, Tyrone Coleman took 117 votes and will face Phillip Hodges, who received 87 votes.

In all, 1,245 people, or about 50 percent of Cairo's registered voters, turned out Tuesday, according to Alexander County Clerk Kent Thomas.

Voters interviewed after casting their ballots were mixed in their reviews of the council and Farris. "I want people who will work for the city and not for themselves," said Willie "Bill" Rose, who was voting with his wife, Marion, at Emerson School. Rose, who has lived in Cairo since his discharge from the armed forces after World War II, said he chose Klein for mayor and Conroy for councilman-at-large. Both are his neighbors, he said.

Farris supporter Marcus Johnson said he blamed the council for the difficulties of the past four years. "You have got to give a person a second chance to finish what they started," he said.

While poll watchers braced for a busy day reviewing voting credentials, few problems were reported by workers at the polls or by Thomas. One of the few problems occurred early in the afternoon. Council candidate Lorenzo Nelson complained to Thomas that election judges at the Ward 3 polling place in the Alexander County Courthouse had allowed one person to vote who listed a vacant lot as an address, and a second voter cast a ballot who listed a post office box in Mounds, Ill., as his address.

"I'd like to play by the rules, and if it is not supposed to happen, it shouldn't happen," Nelson said after Thomas and Board of Elections observer Jeff Barry heard his complaint.

In response, Barry and Thomas told Nelson that election judges have a right to overrule challenges to a voter's credentials. But they must take a formal vote and record it on the voting rolls, he said.

"You can object, but the judges rule," Barry told Nelson.

Barry then addressed the five election judges and reminded them that they must vote on any challenge.

Elsewhere, visits to three of the other four polling locations didn't disclose any other challenges through 2 p.m. Julie Newell, working as an election judge at Emerson School for the second time, said she has heard in the past about votes being purchased for money or liquor. "Whether it does happen or not, I think it is a good thing the state is here," she said. "I am praying and hoping they don't find anything."

Part of the problem is an out-of-date voter registration list that must be purged, Thomas said. But removing invalid names must wait until after the April 17 general election, he said, because state law bars clerks from cleansing voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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