Seven hundred Lafayette voters, including 451 early voters, took to the poles during the Lafayette city election to cast their ballot for mayor and three open city council seats.

In the race for mayor, J.Y. Carter came out in front with 353 votes over Jack Butrum (94 votes) and incumbent Bill Wells (245 votes).

Carter is a Lafayette native, who worked part-time for the city while in high school, was a teacher at Macon County High School for 36 years and worked as a Lafayette mayoral assistant in past years.

In the race for three city council seats incumbent Loryn Atwell, Richard Bransford and Steve Turner were granted the most votes (Atwell – 441, Bransford – 341, Turner – 333).

Only 10 votes away from winning a seat on the Lafayette City Council, Robert Hodges received 324 votes and incumbent Jerry Wix received 145.

Loryn Atwell

Richard Bransford

Steve Turner

Bransford, who was born and raised in Lafayette, is currently the manager at Ace Hardware and has once served a term as 7th district county commissioner.

Turner has lived and worked in the Lafayette area for the past 40 years, with the exception of two years that he served in the military, and is a former Lafayette councilman.

Election winners will be sworn into office on Tuesday, June 3.