Some LaGrange voters were all dressed up with no place to go Tuesday.

By law, the city got to call off its election and save an estimated $25,000 because nobody qualified to oppose Mayor Jeff Lukken and City Council candidates Nick Woodson, Norma Tucker and Jim Thornton. There also were no qualified write-in candidates and no referendums on the ballot.

The law presumes the candidates would have voted for themselves and they’re declared the winners, said Troup Elections Superintendent Donald Boyd.

“One gentleman who votes in the Hammett Road precinct called and wanted to know why the polling place was not open,” Boyd said Wednesday. “He said the Constitution allows him to be able to write in a person’s name if he does not like the candidate who’s running. I said that’s true, but there were no qualified write-in candidates. He could write in anybody’s name, but it wouldn’t have counted.”

An ad in the Daily News had said there would be no election.

Chief Registrar Donna Williams said she got about 30 calls Tuesday, some from people who were already at a polling place and figured it must have been moved.

“We explained that it saves the city a lot of money since there’s no opposition,” Williams said. “They seemed better with it when we told them it’s saving the city money.”

The Hollis Hand, Hammett Road, Northside and Gardner Newman Middle School polling places were closed. Other polling places were open for voters to cast ballots to fill the seat in the House of Representatives for District 129, which includes part of Troup County.

Williams said she turned away about 50 people who showed up at the registrar’s office before Tuesday to take part in early voting.

“We had budgeted $25,000 for the election,” LaGrange Deputy City Manager Meg Kelsey said. “That’s what it cost us two years ago, but we had a runoff too. I would say that’s in the ball park” of what the city would have spent this time around.

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@lagrangenews .com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.