NATCHEZ — Jerry Beatty, by only 168 votes, was elected police juror for District 4A Saturday.

Beatty triumphed over the 14-year incumbent Cathy Darden.

“I had a lot of great people around me,” Beatty said. “They really helped me get here.”

Beatty said he plans to get right to work serving the residents of Ferriday. He plans to extensively research Ferriday’s drainage problems and find a solution to them.

“Ferriday is a flash flood waiting to happen,” he said.

Bryant Hammett Jr. was losing with all but one precinct reporting in the race for 32nd Senatorial District. Neil Riser has 15,537 votes to Hammett’s 12,756.

Hammett won in Concordia Parish by 1,194 votes.

Saturday’s election also voiced the desires of voters in the Monterey area when all of the alcohol referendums passed.

This means that the sale of alcohol in Police Jury District 5B will go on as is, not limiting sales any further based on alcohol content.

Clerk of Court Clyde Ray Webber said he believes that the referendums dealing with alcohol brought out more voters than usual for such an election.

“The turnout was a bit better than I expected,” he said. “But things went very smoothly.”