Roughly 2,000 votes cast early for runoff

Over 2,100 voters cast their ballots early for the April 29 St. Mary Parish Council runoff election.

Early voting started April 15 and ended Saturday. On parishwide ballots is a runoff for Parish Council District 10, At-large seat between Gabriel Beadle, R-Berwick, and Reginald Weary, D-Patterson. Both candidates got into the runoff after they were the top two vote-getters in a March 25 primary.

The race is a special election to fill an open seat on the parish council. All voters in St. Mary Parish are eligible to vote in the runoff, though the actual district covers half of Ber-wick, extending west to Centerville and also includes Four Corners.

A total of 2,145 voters had voted by the end of early voting Saturday, Parish Registrar Jolene Holcombe said in a news release. Daily voting totals were the following: April 15, 377; April 17, 263; April 18, 220; April 19, 297; April 20, 212; April 21, 321; and April 22, 405.

Nine hundred eighty-eight Democrats, 857 Republicans and 300 other-party voters have cast ballots. By race, 1,466 white voters, 654 black voters and 25 voters of other races have voted. By sex, 1,232 women and 913 men voted early.

On the ballots of voters from Centerville to Patterson is a millage proposition to levy an 8.6-mill property tax for 10 years for the newly created Water and Sewer Commission 3. The parish council formed the commission in September 2016 by consolidating Waterworks District 5 and Sewer Districts 5 and 8 into one commission.

Also on the ballot is a 10-year, 5-mill property tax renewal for Fire Protection District 7 in the Bayou Vista area.