With only 486 absentee ballots left to count, Beth Rahn Mosley has won the vacant seat of probate court judge and Scott Hinson will succeed the retiring Preston Exley as chief magistrate.

Mosley, a local realtor, captured 56.66 percent of the vote and opponent Richard Rafter, an attorney, garnered 43.34 percent of the votes. Mosley and Rafter were the top two vote-getters in the November general election, but neither captured a majority of the votes, forcing Tuesday's runoff.

Hinson was the leading vote-getter in the four-man chief magistrate race and had 58.04 percent of Tuesday's ballots. Lewis, a deputy sergeant in the Effingham County Sheriff's Office, had 41.96 percent of the vote.

In the statewide races, incumbent Saxby Chambliss had 75.73 percent of the votes cast in Effingham County for his U.S. Senate seat. Jim Martin, a former state legislator and former head of two state agencies, had 24.27 percent of the vote. With 92 percent of statewide precincts reporting, Chambliss has nearly 58 percent of the vote.

Lauren McDonald had 74.76 percent of the votes in Effingham for the vacant Public Service Commission seat while Jim Powell had 25.24 percent. Sara Doyle had 50.08 percent of the Effingham votes in the Court of Appeals race, compared to Mike Sheffield's 49.92 percent. 

For more, see Friday's Effingham Herald.