MESEY, COOK ARE RE-ELECTED IN BOLLINGER

MARBLE HILL - A record-breaking 76 percent voter turnout kept Bollinger County officials busy hand-counting thousands of paper ballots well into the pre-dawn hours Wednesday morning.

When the final ballot count was tabulated, Sheriff Dan Mesey and 2nd District Commissioner Junior Cook had won narrow victories, but County Assessor Sarah Anderson was defeated in her re-election bid.

In the tight sheriff's race, Republican Dan Mesey defeated Jerry Benfield by 362 votes. Mesey received 2,820 votes to Benfield's 2,458. Mesey was elected in April 1991 to fill out the unexpired term of former sheriff Januar Peters, who resigned.

Meanwhile, 2nd District Democratic Commissioner Junior Cook survived a close call from Republican Donald L. Barks. The final talley was 1,490 for Cook and 1,448 for Barks, a margin of 42 votes.

The upset in the assessor's office occurred when James M. Bollinger defeated incumbent Sarah Anderson, 2,779 to 2,493.

In other election results, Bollinger County went with 8th District U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, with 3,398 votes, to Democrat Thad Bullock's 1,681 votes. Peter Kinder outpolled Betty Cooper Hearnes for the 27th senatorial district seat, 3,095 to 2,080.

County Clerk Diane Holzum said the final ballot wasn't counted until shortly before dawn Wednesday. At midnight Tuesday, 12 of the county's 17 precincts had reported to the courthouse, but the five largest precincts were still out.

Holzum said Tuesday's turnout was larger than the 62 percent turnout for the 1988 presidential election. "And the turnout in 1988 was unusually high," she said.