Wardine Alexander (left) will face off against Ray Brooks (right) on Nov. 19 in a runoff for the council District 7 seat.
By Robert Carter and Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
One Birmingham City Council seat will be up for a runoff after none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the votes in Tuesday’s balloting.
Wardine Towers Alexander will face Ray Brooks on Nov. 19 in a runoff for the council District 7 seat. Alexander won 42.41% of the vote to challenger Ray Brooks’ 30.88%.
Two other races were decided Tuesday. Crystal Smitherman will return as council District 6 councilor, having garnered 51.50% of the vote in a seven-candidate field. In the District 1 race, Clinton Woods will return to the council, with 71.27% of the vote in his district.
The three propositions to renew separate ad valorem taxes all passed by wide margins, with those voting yes in each race amounting to about 90%.
Reporting of full results was delayed until Wednesday because of an error in the handling of electronic machine memory cards at three different precincts.
The cards from the Martha Gaskins School, Robinson Elementary School and Five Points West precincts were sealed inside boxes that contained the paper ballots filled out by voters. Officials with the Birmingham City Clerk’s office had to get a court order Wednesday morning to allow them to open the box and add those votes to the total.
With almost 99 percent of the vote counted, here are vote totals and percentages.
Sherman Collins Jr. 670 27.07
Haki Jamaal Muhammad 41 1.66
Clinton Woods 1,764 71.27
Willine Body 50 2.00
Carlos Chaverst 349 13.99
LaTanya Millhouse 265 10.60
Clarence Muhammad 127 5.08
Crystal Smitherman 1,287 51.50
Keith O. Williams 41 1.64
Onoyemi “Oni” Williams 380 15.21
Wardine Towers Alexander 1,159 42.41
Ray Brooks 844 30.88
Lonnie Franklin Malone 730 26.71
Proposition 1
Yes 14,144 90.02
No 1,568 9.98
Proposition 2
Yes 14,127 90.03
No 1,564 9.97
Proposition 3
Yes 13,992 89.19
No 1,696 10.81
The company building a seven-story student housing development near UAB received permission from the city this week to forgo some property and sale taxes for the project. The county is now set to hear a similar request later this week.
The Jefferson County Board of Education voted Tuesday to begin the 2020-2021 school year with nine weeks of online education only and no option for traditional classroom learning.
None of the Black-owned businesses in 4th Avenue and Civil Rights commercial districts have gone out of business because of the pandemic.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has been closed since March because of the pandemic causing a lack of revenue. Now it's receiving $250,000 in emergency funding from the city of Birmingham.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has found that racial discrimination against Black children and youth can affect their health.
The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to fund the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority through the end of 2020.
