More than one-half of the registered voters in Clinton County took advantage of picture perfect fall weather Tuesday to find the time to make it to the polls and cast their votes in a host of local, district and state races on the ballot.

When the smoke had cleared and the votes had been tallied some two and one-half hours after the 6:00 p.m. closing time for the polls Tuesday, Clinton County citizens knew exactly who would be sworn in this coming January as it’s new government leaders, both in Albany and in Washington as well.

Locally, Clinton County will see Richard Armstrong taking the seat in the county’s highest government office, County Judge/Executive.

Armstrong, a first timer in the political ring, had picked up the Republican nomination in the May’s primary election and on Tuesday, defeated Democrat and former two-term Judge/Executive Charlene King.

Armstrong finished local voting by winning all of the county’s 13 voting precincts as well as absentee and early vote totals to pick up a total of 2,439 votes for a 623 vote win over King who saw 1,816 voters casting votes for her Tuesday.

In the race for Albany Mayor, incumbent Nicky Smith earned another term as the city’s head executive by defeating challenger Lyle Pierce, who is the Assistant Police Chief currently in Albany.

Smith finished Tuesday’s voting by earning 514 votes compared to the 420 votes that Pierce received from voters living inside the Albany city limits.

Smith won all four of the precincts involved in the city races, as well as besting Pierce in vote totals on the absentee voting.

In the voting for Albany City Council, the top six candidates in the 10 candidate field earning spots on the council saw Steven Lawson earn the most votes with 601, Tonya Claborn Thrasher with 567, Brad Thrasher with 432, Tony Delk with 421, Frankie Stockton with 411 and Leland Hicks with 400 votes.

Of those six, only Brad Thrasher will be earning a city council position as a non-incumbent, joining the other five incumbents who won in Tuesday’s voting.

The four candidates losing their bid for a spot on the city council Tuesday, and their respective vote totals were: Lyle Norris (372), James “Smitty” Smith (344), Joyce Martin (329), and Jared Parrigin (306).

James “Smitty” Smith was the incumbent candidate among that list of candidates in Tuesday’s voting.

Also locally, although all six of the Clinton County Fiscal Court members appeared on Tuesday’s ballot, only one of those races involved an actual race between two candidates.

In the second magisterial district, incumbent Patty Guinn, the Republican nominee, earned a return trip to the fiscal court Tuesday by garnering 443 votes to defeat Democrat candidate Matt Smith who picked up 185 votes Tuesday.

Guinn will return to a court laden heavy with incumbents, including Johnny Russell (1st District), Terry Buster (3rd District), Ricky Craig (4th District), Hershel Key (5th District) and Mickey Riddle (6th District).

Only 1st District Magistrate-elect Johnny Russell will be a newcomer to the fiscal court as he joins five incumbent fellow squires to make up Clinton County’s governing body for the next four years.

Also in local opposed races appearing on Tuesday’s ballot, Republican nominee Jim Guffey will don the Clinton County Sheriff’s badge this January for this first four year term in that office

Guffey, a former Clinton County Deputy Sheriff and currently an Albany City Police Officer, defeated former Clinton County Sheriff Raymond Shelton to capture the win Tuesday

Guffey finished Tuesday with 3,262 votes while Shelton, the Democrat nominee earned 1,003 votes.

In the race for the office of Clinton County Jailer, Republican nominee Johnny Thrasher will take the office being vacated by retiring long-time Jailer Gene Ferrill.

Thrasher won Tuesday’s election by defeating Democrat Keith Dalton by some 1,835 votes. Thrasher finished Tuesday’s voting with 3,019 votes while Dalton finished the balloting with 1,184 votes.

In the only other county-wide election that was a two-candidate race Tuesday, it was incumbent Clinton County Clerk Shelia Braswell Booher winning her race against Democrat challenger Dan Thomas.

Booher also finished Tuesday’s balloting as the top vote earner in the election, even nabbing more votes than several candidates who appeared unopposed on Tuesday’s ballot.

Booher picked up some 3,758 votes Tuesday, compared to Thomas’ 523 vote total.

The only other local race that involved candidates with opposition was for the race for Constable in the county’s 3rd District, where Republican Rick Stearns picked up 507 votes to best Democrat Gary Rex Guffey who finished with 285 votes in that race.

Several other races appeared on Tuesday’s ballot that were closely watched, including a two-man race for the 40th Judicial Circuit Court seat.

In that race, current Circuit Judge David L. Williams of Burkesville, was challenged by Steve Hurt, also of Burkesville in a race that involved Clinton, Cumberland and Monroe Counties.

According to the reporting web-site of the Kentucky State Board of Elections, it was Williams who had retained that position when vote totals were tallied late Tuesday night.

Williams easily defeated Hurt in Clinton County voting, and was a narrow winner in the candidates home county of Cumberland, but lost to Hurt in Monroe County.

Across the three-county district, Williams picked up 6,194 votes compared to Hurt’s vote total of 5,463. In Clinton County voting, Williams, a former Kentucky State Senate President, had 2,697 voters give him a nod, while Hurt finished Tuesday’s voting with 1,342 votes locally.

In the race that gained the most attention in Kentucky as well as being one of the most watched races across the country, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell earned a sixth term in Washington Tuesday.

McConnell, the Republican incumbent, was holding a sizable lead over Democrat challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, the current Kentucky Secretary of State.

With 106 of Kentucky’s 120 counties reporting at press time late Tuesday night, McConnell had a sizable lead over Grimes with more than 55 percent of the vote across Kentucky.

McConnell was leading with nearly 725,000 votes compared to nearly 536,000 votes that Grimes had gained.

Also appearing on Tuesday’s ballot in a two-man race was that of U.S. House of Representative Ed Whitfield who was facing challenger Democrat Charles Kendall Hatchett.

Whitfield earned a return trip to Washington to represent Clinton County as a party of this 1st Congressional District with an easy win Tuesday.

With 31 of the 35 counties reporting involved in that race Tuesday, Whitfield was an easy winner with more than 72 percent of the votes compared to over 27 percent of the votes for Hatchett.

In Clinton County, local voters gave Whitfield a big vote of confidence with 3,370 votes compared to just 517 votes for Hatchett.

Several other local candidates appeared on Tuesday’s ballot but did not face opposition.

Those candidates in county-wide voting, and the respective vote total for each, were: Max Wise (State Senate – 2,801), Jeff Hoover (State Representative – 3,070), Pat Campbell (PVA – 3,202), Michael Rains (County Attorney – 3,197).

Other candidates who appeared on Tuesday’s ballot were involved in local district races including those for magistrate and constable.

Included this week in a vote table that gives readers an unofficial vote total of Clinton County results from Tuesday’s election.

Raymond Shelton, a Democrat candidate for Clinton County Sheriff, signed the voter registration book Tuesday morning before joining others in line waiting to cast their ballots at the West Albany precinct Tuesday morning. Shelton lost his bid in Tuesday’s voting to Republican Jim Guffey in a election that saw a 59 percent voter turnout.

Bozie York, along with wife Julie York, took down numbers, along with official tabulators Shirley Latham and Dallas Sidwell as they were read by former County Clerk Jim Elmore Tuesday night at the courthouse.