6 votes decided School Board seat

Just six votes decided the District 9 seat on the St. Mary Parish School Board.
Incumbent Bill McCarty received 706 votes, while his challenger, Jeff Trimm, received 700.
Registrar of Voters Jolene Holcombe said results are not official until the voting machines are opened Friday and the results certified by the Board of Elections supervisors.
The state’s Geaux Vote app indicates an unofficial voter turnout of 43.8 percent for the board election.
However, she said, “most of the time totals don’t change because these are electronic machines.”
Trimm said he congratulated McCarty Tuesday night, but will wait until the machines are open to concede the race. He added he would like to be there when that happens.
He said he was told that there may have been a problem with a voting machine at one of the Morgan City precincts.
Jane Pilant, chief deputy of the St. Mary Clerk of Court, said one machine at Morgan City Junior High registered a system error.
“As soon as it issued an error, it was abandoned and a new machine was brought there,” Pilant said.
The 11 votes cast on that machine were registered, she said.
Pilant said provisional ballots are reviewed only in federal elections, so they do not affect local elections.
Holcombe said the law only allows for a recount of absentee ballots by mail. Because the rest of the votes are recorded electronically there is nothing to recount, she added.
Trimm said, “It was a good race. It was close. I enjoyed it, and I have all intentions of running again in four years.”
McCarty said he would like to congratulate Trimm on “running a strong, clean race.”
Also, “I’d like to thank my supporters in District 9 and I look forward to continuing to serve them. … I look forward to working with Dr. (Donald) Aguillard, the teachers and principals on making St. Mary Parish schools the best they can be,” McCarty said.