Even though Butler County gave a slight edge to Walton Hickman in the Alabama State Representative House District 90 race on Tuesday, Chris Sells garnered 57 percent of the state vote to claim the state seat in Montgomery.

Sells, a republican, received 7,710 votes compared to Hickman’s 5,874.

In Butler County, voters chose Hickman over Sells by 98 votes. Hickman won the county with 2,990 votes or 50.77 percent, while Sells earned 2,892 votes or 49.11 percent.

“I’m excited. I’m proud,” Sells said. “I’m thankful — all of the above.”

Sells said there are many things he wants to accomplish once he takes office in the coming days.

“I can’t say that I have one in front of the other one,” he said. “One thing I’m looking at real hard is that the graduation rate in Alabama is between 75-80 percent, and we have overcrowded prisons at the same time. I think I want to look to see if we could get that graduation rate up. I think 95 percent is attainable.”

Additionally, Sells said he’s going to look at finding where to get money for the deficit fund.

In the only contested race in the county, Brandon Sellers beat Walter Parmer to win the Butler County Board of Education District No. 3 election.

Sellers nabbed 715 votes or 56.66 percent compared to Parmer’s 546 (43.26 percent).

For the statewide amendments, residents voted in favor of each amendment.

The closest vote came under Amendment 2, which allows the state to borrow $50 million to build National Guard armories. The amendment also relates to capital improvement.

Two-thousand-four-hundred-and-eighty-five residents voted in favor of Amendment 2, which was 322 more than those who voted against. Statewide, the vote was locked at 50-50.

Amendment 1 was passed by a 3,514-1,152 margin; Amendment 3 won with 67.72 percent of the vote at 3,356; Amendment 4 was passed with a 57.81 percent vote; and Amendment 5 scooted by with a 77.13 percent vote.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley won re-election by defeating Parker Griffith with 64 percent (747,357 votes).

Kay Ivey and Luther Strange held their incumbencies as Lieutenant Governer and Alabama Attorney General, respectively.

John Merrill garnered 64 percent of the vote to be named the Alabama Secretary of State.