By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales raised concerns about voting machines in Tuesday’s mayor’s election, say county officials.
Scales, making her second unsuccessful bid for Birmingham mayor, told supporters during her Election Night Watch Party at The Link on Huffman Road, that “we’re looking into the matter, we’re watching certain patterns.”
According to unofficial results, incumbent Mayor Randall Woodfin won a third term with 24,559 votes, or 74.87 percent in a field of nine that included Scales who finished second with 4,781 votes, or 14.5 percent. Scales also finished second to Woodfin in the 2021 mayoral election.
The runner-up congratulated Woodfin at her Watch Party, but added “what we’re going to do in the meantime is that we’re going to look into some matters concerning polling information and, some things that we’ve kind of been dealing with throughout the day.”
Even though they did not detect any problems, county officials say about a dozen machines were reset “out of an abundance of caution” in various locations.
Just over 32,800 Birmingham residents cast their votes from 134 voting machines in 67 precincts. Like in 2021, Woodfin swept all the precincts including the ones in Scales’s commission district.
In her speech to supporters on Tuesday, Scales applauded volunteers who manned polling locations across the city.
“Fantastic job today,” she told them. “Real excited with all that you have done. … Everybody worked so hard. You are an amazing team and because you are such amazing team, you will forever be in our hearts. … You did an excellent job, and we have nothing to be upset about.“
Scales, who announced her run 30 days before the election, said she faced an uphill battle.
“For us to be right now even coming in second place against a $1.4 million [Woodfin] campaign, that’s God,” she told supporters. “Whatever level you contributed [to our campaign], just know that [husband] Mike and I are very grateful, that we’re very thankful. I cannot say that enough.”
