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Runoff races for council seats in Lanett and LaFayette will be decided a little more than two weeks from now.

On Tuesday, Oct. 6, Lanett voters will be deciding one council seat. On the same day, voters in LaFayette will decide a race for mayor and a council seat.

Incumbent John Motley and challenger Tifton Dobbs will face off in a race for the District 5 seat in the Oct. 6 runoff in Lanett. In the Aug. 25 municipal election, Dobbs was a few votes shy of winning a three-candidate race outright. He led the field with 107 votes. Motley was second with 87, while Tony Moffett had 31.

In LaFayette, Kenneth Vines led the way in a four-candidate race for mayor with 358 votes. Incumbent Mayor Barry Moody had 255 votes to force a runoff.

The two faced off four years ago in a runoff, with Moody winning.

“I’m looking forward to the runoff,” Moody said on election night. “We’ve got a lot of things that I believe in. We’ve got a lot of things that we’ve been working on, and we’re about to implement those. I was excited about the fact that on Sept. 4 that we’re going to have the streets paved. We’ve got money for the city park. We’ve got a new city hall that we’ve already completed the bids on. I would just like to reach out to those who voted for other candidates and ask them to come aboard and let’s see what we can do to continue to make this a better place for all of us to live.”

Vines lost in a close race four years ago, but after the Aug. 25 election, he had high hopes for his chances.

“If I can get the people to believe in my productive vision for what I want to get done in the city of LaFayette, I believe I will be successful in the runoff,” Vines said after qualifying for the run-off. “I know it will be a close race. It’s up to the citizens to come out to vote. I’m hoping for a larger turnout [than in 2016]. I really want the citizens to just ride around the city of LaFayette and see how things are and realize that we need to make some changes, so our city and families can have a better quality of living. If I can get them to see how badly we need changes, just to be competitive in the surrounding cities, then I believe they will vote for me in a runoff.”

District B incumbent Charlotte Blasingame led her race on Aug. 25 but fell short of 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

Blasingame had 89 votes to lead the way. Second-place finisher Shannon Hunter had 53 votes to make the runoff.

“I’m not in this for myself or my ego. I’m trying to do good for the people, and we will see what happens when I go out and talk to them some more.” Hunter said after last month’s election.

Blasingame won her seat in 2019 by winning a runoff.

“I’m looking forward to the run-off and serving four more years and would appreciate them [voters] coming out in the run-off.” Blasingame said on election night.