Franklin mayor wins third term

Franklin Mayor Raymond Harris Jr. won his third term to office Saturday.
Harris garnered 1,394 votes or 54.69 percent against challenger Kenny P. Scelfo Sr. with 1,155 votes or 45.31 percent of the vote.
Louisiana Secretary of State numbers indicate an unofficial 49.4 percent voter turnout in the mayoral race in Franklin.
Harris said Sunday, “I’m grateful to God for giving me favor with the people. I’m thankful to the people of Franklin for having enough confidence in me to return me to office.”
The mayor said in this next term he plans to “continue moving in the direction we’ve been going in. We’re going to continue to attract business and industry to Franklin, we’re going to continue to work to improve our infrastructure.”
Scelfo thanked everyone who voted both in early voting and on election day.
Two elections for city council also saw the incumbents winning back their seats.
At-Large district councilman Lester Levine retained his seat with 1,583 votes over candidate Kerry Martin’s 832 votes. That was a 66 percent to 34 percent spread.
Turnout in that race was 46.8 percent, according to the secretary of state’s unofficial calculations.
Councilman Chuck Autin, District B, collected 433 votes against Brandan Trahan with 180. Turnout was 49.6 percent.