Mayor Bill Bell wins Durham primary

The primaries for Mayor of Durham and City Council took place Tuesday night, narrowing the field to the top contenders for the general election in November. With 98.39 percent of the votes counted, Bell, running for his seventh two-year term, won by a large margin with 87.17 percent of the votes. Sylvester Williams and Michael Valentine battled for the second place, but Williams won over with a total of 7.22 percent, while Valentine finished with 5.61 percent. Williams will now face Bell in the general election on Nov. 5.

In the race for the Durham Council Ward II, Eddie Davis placed first with a total of 59.40 percent of the votes. Omar Beasley, Del Mattioli and Franklin Hanes followed with, 21.57, 13.56 and 5.47 percent, respectively. Davis and Beasley will continue on in the general election to seek the single Ward II seat.

A total of 10,326 votes were recorded, and the voter turnout was 5.98 percent, compared to 8.83 percent in the 2011 mayoral primary. Early voters totaled 1,876 this year with the highest percentage of the early voters casting ballots on Saturday, Oct. 5.