PAST PRIMARY ELECTIONS: 1994 (Collins, Hambelton, Robertson win 1994 Primary Election seats)

The following article was reprinted from the Aug. 3, 1994, edition of the Ozark County Times. 

In the Aug. 2, 1994, Primary Election, 2,809 Ozark County voters turned out (45.4 percent of the 6,237 registered voters) to cast their ballots for national, state and county officials, as well as vote on various bond issues. 

In local races, incumbent [Presiding] Commissioner Gary Lee Collins gathered 1,084 votes to assure him as the Republican candidate to run against Democrat Bob Bryant in the general election to be held Nov. 8, 1994. 

Rex Robertson was selected with a total of 1,174 votes as the Western District Commissioner and Gerald Hambelton had 434 votes to make him the Eastern District Commissioner. Both will run unopposed in the general election.

Incumbent Associate Judge of the Circuit Court John Jacobs defeated opponent Janelle Calvert House 1,451 to 1,054 votes. Jacobs took in 57.92 percent of the vote to the 42.08 percent by House.

Becki Strong fairly ran away from her opponents with 1,287 votes (51.01 percent) to assure her the position of Circuit Clerk/Record of Deeds.

In the race for County Clerk, incumbent Howard Haskins defeated challenger David Ford by getting 61.37 percent (1,538 votes) to Ford’s 38.63 percent (968 votes).

Attorney Charlie Brown was uncontested as Prosecuting Attorney, as were Edna Jones, the incumbent Collector of Revenue, and Fred Jenkins, the incumbent Treasurer. 

In bond elections, county voters supported the building of a new elementary school by passing the special bond election for the Gainesville R-V School District, 808 to 540. In the Bakersfield R-IV School District, their special bond election failed 191 to 110. 

County voters also did not support the Constitutional Amendment No. 4 at the state level and defeated that bond vote 1,617 to 906.