BREAKING: Ali Taj Wins Election for Artesia City Council; Lyon Defeated; Flowers, Manalo Reelected

Ali Taj visits with Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper recently to talk about his campaign. Randy Economy Photo

By Brian Hews

This is Breaking News!

Artesia voters have elected political newcomer Ali Taj to the citty council in a stunning election that will be remembered for years to come.

Taj defeated iconic City Councilman John Lyon by less than 1/2 of a percentage point in Tuesday’s voting. Voters in Artesia also reelected incumbents Sally Flowers and Victor Manalo.

Taj told Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper in a phone interview after his victory that the “Artesia community wants an independent voice on the city council.”

Here are the Unofficial Results in Artesia

ARTESIA CITY GEN MUNI        
COUNCILMEMBER                                   
VOTE FOR NO MORE THAN   3                                                    

   SALLY FLOWERS      713    21.65 
   VICTOR MANALO      630    19.13 
   ALI S TAJ          612    18.58
 
   JOHN P LYON        594    18.04 
   MELISSA RAMOSO     456    13.85 
   MANU PATEL         288     8.75 

TOTAL PRECINCTS          3            
PRECINCTS REPORTING         3   100.00 
REGISTRATION         7,420

Andrew Perry says:

November 6, 2013 at 4:01 pm

Just as a point of caution, I understand that there may be more than 200 uncounted provisional and absentee ballots, plus any additional absentee ballots that may have been sent out at the last minute last night.

It’s still technically too close to call an election.