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Only one incumbent remains on Brentwood's town council after Monday's municipal election to fill all of the council seats.
A total of 205 votes were cast in the election. Winning candidates included Jeff E. Clark with 132 votes, E. James Cooksey with 104 votes, Aneeka Harrison with 91 votes and incumbent Marlene Robinson with 81 votes.
"I was very surprised to win, but my wife helped me with the campaign and she did a very good job with it," said Cooksey, who was a councilman in 2000 and 2004.
Incumbent Verron Bretemps was one vote shy of retaining his seat, with 80 votes. Incumbent Roger E. Rudder also lost with 71 votes. Newcomer Tina Renay Fulp received 75 votes.
Chief Election Judge Mary Reed said during a Tuesday night council meeting that she's already received one challenge to the election, questioning the validity of the results.
According to the town charter, registered voters in the town have 30 days to challenge the election results. The chief election judge investigates challenges, with the help of the town attorney, and then renders a decision. Residents then have 30 days to appeal the judge's decision to the town council.
Harrison had been the chief election judge, but resigned because she wanted to run for office. She said the voting machines didn't allow voters to write in candidates. She said she's heard numerous reports from voters that the process to write in candidates was changing throughout the day, from voters being instructed to write in a particular candidate, to write-in ballots being placed on a table so they were visible to judges.
"The process, to me, was unethical," Harrison said. "It wasn't consistent."
Resident Nina Young's petition to run was originally approved. Reed then said during an April 14 council meeting that Young was ineligible to run because she didn't meet town charter requirements of being a qualified voter.
Young's name was removed from the ballot and she ran a write-in campaign, receiving 69 votes.
The town also has a new mayor, Xzavier Wright, who ran unopposed and won the seat with 84 votes. Some residents also wrote in names, with George Denny receiving 29 write-in votes and former mayor Bettyjean Bailey-Schmiedigen receiving 21 write-in votes.
