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By Annie Bresee

Kandis Strickland won the post-five Hogansville City Council seat on Tuesday by a single vote. 

Strickland defeated her competitor Jason Baswell by the slimmest margin possible, earning 204 votes to Baswell’s 203 votes. 

Voter turnout for the Hogansville race was low with 16.4 percent of registered voters casting a ballot. There were no provisional ballots for the Hogansville races, according to Troup County Elections Supervisor Andrew Harper.

On her win, Strickland simply said, “the citizens have spoken.”

Both of the competitor’s reactions sum up the strange finality of an election that ends in such a close margin. Baswell took the loss in stride.

“That’s crazy ain’t it,” Baswell said of the one vote difference.

“If [Hogansville citizens] ever need anything from me, feel free to contact me. I can still be a voice for the people even without being on the council. I just encourage everybody to get behind all those who were voted in tonight and continue to make this a better place.”

Both Strickland and Baswell are new to politics, having run for incumbent Toni Striblin’s seat after she decided not to seek re-election. 

Strickland serves on the downtown development board for her city, although she is unsure if she will continue on the board after being elected. She will stay on as a teacher at Hogansville Elementary School.

“I love serving our younger citizens,” she said. 

Baswell expressed interest in running for office again in the future but was unclear on when that would be. Although, he intends to stay involved in the city’s politics.

“I’ll continue to attend meetings with our representatives and ensuring that the infrastructure that they started, that my opponent said she backs, I’ll just make sure they continue replacing and upgrading and updating that infrastructure,” Baswell said. 

Strickland plans on following through on those campaign promises. 

“I am ready to serve Hogansville…to strengthen the infrastructure for the growth and the citizens that are currently here, to speak up and have a voice for all the citizens of Hogansville, to be transparent, and to work with the mayor and council so we can do great things,” she said.