Whitmire, Watt and Brown win local elections

Of the 74,599 registered voters, only 24,782 made the trip to the polls to cast their right to gripe for the next few years Republican voters totaled 21,064 to the Democrats 3,718 Grayson Country voter turnout was 33 percent

The elections that affected Howe the most were the races for Grayson County Commissioner, Precint 1, Grayson County Sheriff and Grayson Country District Attorney

Jeff Whitmire, Commissioner of Precinct 1 was re-elected over local Howe man Scott Renfro by a total of 2,251 to 1,689 (57 13 percent to 42 87 percent)

Tom Watt won the three-man race for Sheriff with 12,056 total votes (63 percent) compared to 3,854 (20 14 percent) for Russell and 3,226 for Howard Day (16 86 percent)

Joe Brown was re-elected for another term over challenger Bobbie Peterson Cate for the office of Grayson County District Attorney Brown totalled 12,382 (65 03 percent) votes to Cates' 6,658 (34 97 percent)

Watt will replace retiring Sheriff Gary who has been in that position since his first election win back in

1996 The position doesn't officially start until January of 2017

Brown, who was originally elected back in 2000 in a hot contested race with Bob Jarvis which even drew national attention This race was nothing like Brown's first race as Cate had stated that she didn't have major complaints with the District Attorney's Office except for her opinion of the office becoming stale with no new programs

Whitmire was elected Commissioner of this area back in 2013 and quickly had to remove several employees due to questionable county practices He overcame being short-handed by investing that surplus of payroll back to the county budget for roads and bridges His opponent, Renfro, who has been a Howe ISD school board member, threw his hat in the ring last year to give a voice to the rural land owners with the upcoming growth headed to South Grayson County

Not much changes for Brown and Whitmire, but Watt has virtually nine months to be fully job-ready His experience will shave that time

Grayson County voted highly for Ted Cruz with 41 percent with Donald Trump second with 29 percent