Lincoln County voters selected Bogue Chitto’s Ricky Welch andWest Lincoln’s Jack Case Tuesday as the two newest members of theLincoln County School Board, according to unofficials electiontotals.

Case came out on top of a three-candidate race in EducationalDistrict 4, defeating challengers Darron Wallace and Denise RobertsWhite by gaining almost 50 percent of the vote. Though Case did notclaim the normal 50 percent plus one vote total, state law declares”the candidate in each supervisor’s district who receives thehighest number of votes cast in the district shall be declaredelected.”

And Case accomplished that by healthy margins.

He collected 713 votes in the district’s five precincts, whileWhite gathered 444 votes and Wallace received 271. White’s andWallace’s percentage totals were 31 percent and almost 19 percent,respectively.

Case will replace outgoing board member Sheriff Steve Rushing inrepresenting West Lincoln on the board. Case could not be reachedfor comment Wednesday morning.

Welch, meanwhile, bested his opponent by a 2-1 ratio. Hegathered 867 votes from the seven precincts in Educational District3 to defeat Edward Dillon, who managed 437 votes. The totalsreflect 66 percent of the vote for Welch to Dillon’s 33percent.

Welch will replace retiring board member JoAnn Holmes, whoserved as Bogue Chitto’s representative on the board for 19years.

Despite his comfortable margin of victory, Welch was walking oneggshells Wednesday morning.

“I didn’t say anything and I wasn’t going to talk about it untila day or two went by, just to make sure,” he said. “But I’m feelingpretty good.”

Welch said he was particularly proud of his victory consideringthat some of his supporters were unable to vote for him due todistricting.

“I was happy that people were behind me enough to ask, to wantto vote for me,” he said.

Welch admitted that he was joining the Lincoln County Board ofEducation during a potentially tumultuous time, as statewide taxrevenues are down and cuts could be on the way. But he is notintimidated by his new duties, he said.

“I’ve been talking back and forth with a lot of people to get afeel for the situation,” he said. “There’s a lot of things on theagenda, but I’m ready to get in there and get started.”