It was no surprise that the Grady County Sheriff race was a close one. Both candidates campaigned heavily all over Grady County.

However, Republican Art Kell’s success in the northern part of the county wiped out Democrats Austin Green’s hard-earned votes in the rest of the county.

Kell had said Tuesday night after he learned he had won a narrow victory that campaigning hard in northern Grady County had been a part of his campaign strategy.

It appears his plan worked.

Ahead of Kell by as many as 1,000 votes for much of the evening, Green was not able to sustain his lead after the Tuttle and Blanchard votes were tallied.

Green, who carried 28 precincts to Kell’s 11 precincts, was the big winner in Chickasha, winning by more than 800 votes. In addition he was the winner in Rush Springs, Minco, Ninnekah, Amber, Tabler, Pioneer and Pocasset. He also carried Verden, Alex, and Bailey.

However, because of the population increase in northern Grady County and the large number of Republican voters in the area, Kell’s 11 precincts were enough to win the election. Kell carried Tuttle by a margin of about 1,200 votes, and Blanchard by about 800 votes. He also took Middleburg, Tabler and Bradley.

The percentage of absentee voters was almost even with Green receiving 1,271 votes to Kell’s 1,261.

Kell also got a boost by the number of voters voting a straight party ticket.

Figures provided by the election board showed that more than 5,000 Republicans voted a straight party ticket,compared to just more than 3,000 Democrats holding a straight party line.

Green made note of that during the evening when he said many people were voting for the party and not the person.

When it was all said and done, Kell had won the right to be Grady County’s next Sheriff, with the unofficials counot of 10,408 votes to Green’s 10,015.