School board elections: Miles defeats Newberry in Berryville; Freehling defeats Wells in Eureka Springs

Fewer than two percent of countywide voters cast ballots in Tuesday's school elections that resulted in the unseating of two incumbent board members who were running for re-election, according to unofficial election results.

Initial reports show Jack Newberry, the Zone 5 representative on the Berryville Board of Education, lost his bid for a repeat term to newcomer Jeff Miles, who captured 64 percent of the vote to Newberry's 36 percent.

Those same reports show Eureka Springs Position 4 incumbent Randy Wells lost his school board seat to challenger Tom Freehling, who garnered 78 percent of the vote, compared to Well's 22 percent.

With no millage issues or other races to be decided, voter turnout was extremely low. Of the 13,120 registered voters, only 196 cast ballots, representing 1.49 percent.

The other board members listed on the ballots were incumbents running unopposed for repeat terms. They included: Green Forest's Cheryl Howard, who received the necessary one vote to retain her seat; Berryville's Shannon Hill, with four votes; Eureka's Position 3 representative, Robert McCormick, with 106 votes; and Eureka's Rudy Sanchez, the Position 5 representative, with 105 votes.

Election day voting took place at the Best Western Eureka Inn for Eureka Springs School patrons and at the Berryville Community Center for Berryville patrons.

Because the Green Forest district had no contested races, it did not open a poll on election day, but conducted its election strictly through early and absentee voting, according to state election law.

A total of three patrons cast ballots in the Green Forest election. All patrons were given the opportunity to vote for or against their district's current millage tax. In Green Forest, two votes were cast for the tax, one against, and one vote went to board member Howard.

The most voters turned out in Eureka Springs to cast ballots in its one contested race. A total of 122 patrons gave challenger Freehling 92 votes over incumbent Wells' 26.

Eureka patrons cast 94 votes for its existing school millage and 25 against.

A total of 71 ballots were cast in the Berryville School election, with four votes going to unchallenged board member Hill, 39 votes for the school tax and 31 against.

In the one contested race in Berryville, only 39 votes were cast. Twenty-five went to challenger Miles to unseat incumbent Newberry, who received 14.

According to Carroll County Election Coordinator Bethe Henley, results from Tuesday's election are set to be certified next week when the election commission meets.

She said everything went smoothly during Tuesday's election with "no problems and no issues," and unofficial election results were announced at 8:56 p.m.