NATCHEZ &045;&045; Certification of vote totals for Tuesday’s election won’t be finished until later today, according to Election Commission Larry Gardner.

But as of Wednesday, the margin of votes between Jim Blough and Lisa Jordan Dale, candidates for municipal judge, &uot;is getting closer together,

not further apart,&uot; Gardner said.

As of Tuesday’s unofficial returns, Blough had 1,232 votes and Dale had 1,180 &045;&045; a little more than than 50 votes, but enough to put Blough in a May 18 runoff with Patricia Dunmore, who received 2,238 votes. Neither Blough nor Dale could be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon.

However, there were no substantial differences in other races, including the mayor’s race and the Ward 1 alderman’s race.

In the latter race, incumbent Joyce Arceneaux received 459 votes, or 51.28 percent, avoiding a runoff.

The candidate with the next-closest number of votes &045;&045; 241, or almost 27 percent &045;&045; was Jim Sanders, who was present when the commission reviewed Ward 1 ballots Wednesday.

&uot;I won’t challenge (the results),&uot; he said. When ballots were reviewed, he said, &uot;I only picked up two votes, not enough to make a difference.&uot;

Sanders said he wishes Arceneaux luck in her next term and still plans to be active as a citizen &uot;working toward the betterment of the community.&uot;

In the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor Tuesday, state Rep. Phillip West came in first with 2,343 votes, or 42.32 percent, to incumbent Mayor F.L. &uot;Hank&uot; Smith’s 1,106 votes, or 19.98 percent.

While Smith could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, West said he was busy fielding congratulatory calls. West was scheduled to meet Wednesday night with some supporters to go over a campaign strategy for the next two weeks.

&uot;We’ll going to try and reorganize and assess what I can do better to influence those voters who did not vote for me the first time to do so in the runoff,&uot; West said. &uot;But we probably won’t have (a strategy) defined until the beginning of next week.&uot;

The next-closest finisher, Fred Middleton, said Wednesday he will not contest the election results. Middleton received 964 votes, or 17.41 percent.

About 120 affidavit ballots were cast, a number Gardner said was actually fewer than he expected.

Gardner said he received no complaints about Tuesday’s primary.

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said he only heard of cars with campaign signs on them being within a 150-foot radius of the council chambers polling place Tuesday.

Holloway said he immediately told the cars’ owners to move them to another location.