Busby certified as District 4 winner

A unanimous Tuscaloosa City Council voted Tuesday to declare Lee Busby as the winner of last week’s special election for District 4.

During a canvassing meeting required to certify municipal elections, city officials included the absentee ballot and provisional ballot totals for the candidates.

With these ballots included, a total of 345 votes were cast.

This amounts to an overall turnout of 5.1 percent of the 6,812 voters within the district that encompasses the University of Alabama, the nearby historic district neighborhoods and much of downtown Tuscaloosa.

Busby, a retired Marine and businessman, was declared the victor with 207 votes, or 60 percent of the total.

He was followed, respectively, by Frank Fleming with 120 votes, or 35 percent, and John Earl with 18 votes for 5 percent.

A total of 30 provisional ballots were cast but only eight were counted, officials said. Fleming earned each of these.

And 12 absentee ballots were cast, with 10 going to Busby and two to Fleming.

Busby will be sworn into office During the regular City Council meeting Tuesday night.

A Tuscaloosa City Council member’s annual salary for fiscal 2020, which began Oct. 1, is $27,836.64.

Busby, 62, will fill the unexpired term of ex-Councilman Matt Calderone, who resigned his seat in July after moving into a home outside of the district.

State law required the City Council call a special election to fill the position, rather than appointing someone to serve the remainder of his term, because it is more than a year until the next municipal election in 2021.

Reach Jason Morton at jason.morton@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0200.