Chastity Grant Carter
Elmo Grant
Hallettsville
Hallettsville Tribune Herald

Carter tops lone contested Hallettsville alderman race

  • Chastity Grant Carter, daughter of daughter of Elmo Grant, former Hallettsville police chief and current Place 1 councilman, topped the ballot count with 147 total votes in the lone contested race for Place 1 alderman in the May 7 local election.
    Chastity Grant Carter, daughter of daughter of Elmo Grant, former Hallettsville police chief and current Place 1 councilman, topped the ballot count with 147 total votes in the lone contested race for Place 1 alderman in the May 7 local election.

    Claiming roughly twice as many votes as her two competitors, Chastity Grant Carter walked away from Saturday’s three-way race for Hallettsville’s Place 1 alderman position the decisive victor in the lone contested race for local council seats.

    Carter, the daughter of Elmo Grant, former Hallettsville police chief and current Place 1 councilman, topped the ballot count with 147 total votes in the May 7 local election, Saturday’s unofficial election night returns showed. She was followed by Michelle Lanni with 85 total votes, and Laurie Nordquist with 64 total votes.

    While Carter led the vote count across all categories, early voting numbers are what truly secured her victory in this race. She had 103 early ballots cast in her favor, as compared to Lanni with 60 early votes and Nordquist with 38. 

    Absentee ballots were a bit more evenly spread, with Carter leading at 18, followed by Nordquist at 16 and Lanni at 14. Election day numbers were surprisingly low for this race, again with Carter in the lead at 26, followed by Lanni at 11 and Nordquist at 10.

    Running unopposed for his Place 3 alderman seat on the Hallettsville city council, Trent Skelton finished the night with 259 total votes, with roughly 4 times as many votes received—179 altogether—as compared to absentee votes and election day boxes, which collected 40 votes each.

    Dean Madden also ran unopposed for his Place 4 seat on the Hallettsville council, collecting 249 total votes, which included 166 early votes, 42 absentee votes and 41 on election day.

    All numbers used within this story are based on unofficial election night returns sent to the newspaper by Lavaca County elections administrator Amy Kloesel well after polls closed late Saturday.