A new Brown County Judge will be sworn in on Jan. 1, 2023 as former Brown County Attorney Shane Britton handily defeated incumbent Dr. Paul Lilly in Tuesday’s runoff election.

In a highly contentious race between the two candidates, Britton garnered 2,313 votes (62.79%) in the runoff compared to Lilly’s 1,371 votes (37.21%).

“I’m excited and honored that the voters trust me enough to vote me in,” Britton said. “It turned out to be pretty bad weather today and I didn’t know how that would affect the turnout, but we had a decent turnout. I’m eager to get to work, it’s going to be a long seven months until Jan. 1, but we’re ready to get to work.”

Regarding what will take place between now and when Britton is sworn into office, he said, “It is a waiting game, but I hope Judge Lilly will allow me to participate in some way in the budget process. It’s nearly time to start the budget process, we start it next month and I’m hoping he’ll allow me to participate. I got some, what I think, are good ideas and some things we need to try, but that will be completely up to him.”

BrownwoodNews.com unsuccessfully reached out to Lilly for comment after the final results came in Tuesday night. According to an 8:22 p.m. Facebook post by Lilly, “Thanks everyone for all of your support. I do sincerely appreciate it.”

In the March 1 election, Britton received 2,293 votes, or 37.73%, while Lilly received 1,575 votes, or 25.92%, in a four-person race, which led to the runoff.

In other races, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Joel Kelton kept his seat by collecting 399 votes (54.81%) to 329 votes (45.19%) for his opponent Jeff Hoskinson.

“I was nervous, I ain’t going to lie to nobody,” said Kelton, who trailed 180 to 178 when early voting numbers were released shortly after 7 p.m. “It was a closer night than I wanted it to be, but I’m proud that we got what we did. I want to thank everybody for supporting us one more round.”

The three-man race on March 1 saw Kelton with 45.78% of the vote, a total of 493 votes, and Jeff Hoskinson with 29.41%, a total of 317 votes.

The Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace race saw incumbent Ted Perez tally 432 votes (54.34%) to opponent Harold Thomas’ 363 votes (45.66%).

“I’m grateful and honored and I thank the good Lord he was able to get me through,” Perez said. “It’s going to be an honor and a privilege to be able to serve the citizens of Precinct 4 as their judge.”

In another four-person race on March 1, Perez collected 495 votes, or 35.9%, while Thomas tallied 389 votes, or 28.21%.