VALDOSTA — A light turnout made the decision on several municipal elections around Lowndes County.

In Hahira, Patrick Warren defeated incumbent Ralph Clendenin by a wide margin of only 61 votes cast in the race for the District 3 seat.  Warren earned 59% of the vote to Clendenin’s 23%, while Stacey Dershimer earned 18%.  Kenneth Davis was unopposed for District 2.

In Lake Park, Mayor Eric Schindler ran unopposed, while a wide-open race for City Council was very close.  Two-hundred eighty-nine votes were cast for 5 different candidates.  The top three candidates were Debbie Sauls with 25% of the vote, or 73 votes, Incumbent Ronald Carter with 21% of the vote, or 62 votes, and Jena Sandlin with 20%, or 58 votes.  Incumbents Burt Rutland and Paul Mulkey both finished out of the top three, earning 18% and 16% of the vote respectively.