The United States has a new president as Sen. Barack Obama won by an overwhelming majority of the vote nationwide, but Sen. John McCain won Crenshaw County hands down. At this time, two heated state battles are still up in the air as Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh and Lucy Baxley are waiting for a final official count for Public Service Commission President, as well as Judge Greg Shaw and Judge Deborah Bell Paseur for Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Within the county, however, things were relatively quiet as the only local race on the ballot was for Crenshaw County Revenue Commissioner, and incumbent Sherry McSwean ran with no opposition, receiving 4,502 votes.

There were 27 write-in votes for the position.

Countywide, the unofficial summary report shows a total of 6,313 ballots cast with 1,496 of those voting a straight Democratic ticket and 1,426 voting a straight Republican ticket.

Crenshaw County went red for John McCain with 4,316 votes, or 68 percent, to Obama’s 1,938 votes, or 30 percent. Independent Ralph Nader received 11 votes.

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions pulled the county with 70 percent of the vote over Vivian Davis Figures.

In the hotly contested 2nd Congressional District race, Democrat Bobby Bright squeaked by Republican Jay Love with almost 52 percent of the votes. Bright received 3,195 to Love’s 2,976.

The same scenario could be seen between Republican Greg Shaw, who received 3,089 votes, to Democrat Deborah Bell Paseur’s 2,950 votes.

For Court of Civil Appeals, Republican Bill Thompson pulled in 3,355 votes, well over Kimberly Drake’s 2,345 count.

For Court of Criminal Appeals, Place One, Republican Beth Kellum won in Crenshaw County with 3,514, or 62 percent, over Democrat Clyde Jones’s 37 percent.

For Court of Criminal Appeals, Place Two, Republican Mary Windom received the most county votes with almost 57 percent to Aimee Cobb Smith’s 43 percent.

Republican Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh received 3, 090 votes over Democrat Lucy Baxley’s 2,951 votes for Public Service Commissioner President.

For State Board of Education District 5, Republican Lula Bridges received 2,935 votes to Democrat Ella Bell’s 2,698.

On the statewide Amendment One, in Crenshaw County, 2,826 people voted yes, or almost 58 percent, while 2,058 people voted no, or 42 percent.

As for one of the biggest election days in history, Crenshaw County Probate Judge Jim Perdue said things ran smoothly and quietly in the county.

“We had virtually no problems,” Perdue said. “We had a really good turnout– pushing 68 to 70 percent.”

A common scene all over the nation as well as in the county Tuesday was the presence of poll watchers, volunteers or paid workers by each party who observed the voting processes throughout the day.

“We don’t normally have poll watchers, even though we’ve had some in the past on occasion,” Perdue explained. “This was happening everywhere though, not just in our county. All of them were from out of the county and were from both parties. “

“It just shows how sensitive this entire election was.”

Perdue said the thing to watch now would be the races between Cavanaugh and Baxley and Shaw and Paseur.

“The process now is that the provisional ballots will be counted by the Canvassing Board next Wednesday, Nov. 12, and on Friday, Nov. 14, the Canvassing Board will certify the votes. From there, the certification of votes is then transferred to Secretary of State Beth Chapman who will certify the state totals, making all of them official.”

This is the fourth election Crenshaw County has seen within the last year. The next elections will be held in 2010.