Yusuf Hakeem declared winner of Chattanooga City Council District 9 race

photo Yusuf Hakeem

Voters in City Council District 9 have a new representative: Yusuf Hakeem, who this morning was declared the winner of the March 5 election.

Members of the Hamilton County Election Commission voted to grant Hakeem the win over incumbent Peter Murphy. No runoff election is necessary.

In the March 5 election, Hakeem received six more votes than Murphy.

Hakeem won 1,030 votes (49.98 percent) to Murphy's 1,024. There were seven write-in ballots.

The city charter states the winner will be the candidate with the most "ballots cast:"

"In each city primary election hereafter held if any candidate for mayor, city judge or city council member shall receive a majority of the votes cast for all candidates for the office or administrative post for which he was a candidate, he shall be declared elected, and given a certificate of election, and his name shall not be placed on the ballot in the regular election."

Under state law, write-in candidates have to register with their local election commission to have their votes counted. There were no official write-ins in the 9th District. Those ballots were cast for Melony Collins, J.J., Andrae McGary (who was the incumbent defeated in the District 8 race), Moses Freeman (the candidate who won District 8), Michael Dwayne Davenport, and two "check marks."

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