Brenda Gray wins fourth term, Terry Heston and Paul Miller win council seats

The votes are in and Brenda Gray wins fourth term, Terry Heston and Paul Miller win council seats.

The unofficial results came in just after 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Gray, Heston and Miller won the three city council seats that will begin early next year.

The signs along Main Street in downtown Avon Park were are all too telling of Tuesday's city council elections.

Voters trickled into the precincts since it opened Tuesday morning and candidates camped outside. In between hand shakes and smiles they sat in their camping chairs waiting to introduce themselves to more voters.

Candidates and supporters for Marshall and Heston campaigned outside City Hall since 7 a.m.
Miller was stationed on the other side of Main Street in front of Precinct 1. And Gray reached out to potential voters on the intersection of Delaney and Hal McRae Boulevard.

By noon a total of 267 had voted when 4 p.m. came around there were 454 votes and by 7 p.m. the final tally of voters who voted at the precincts was 628. That's an estimated 14 percent voter turnout one percent less than the 2003 city council elections.

The results for Precinct 1and 16a were: Gray 143, Heston 230, Marshall 102 and Miller 268.

The results for Precinct 2 and 4a were: Gray 189, Heston 146, Marshall 181 and Miller 101.

The total number of votes per candidate are: Heston with 390, Miller with 388, Gray with 343 and Marshall with 293.

Although 4 provisional ballots have to be validated the votes did not come in close enough to effect the outcome for the three council seats.