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Edwardsville incumbents came out on top in Tuesday's primary election.

Mayor Luther Pickell came away with more than 41 percent of the vote.

Of the 493 voters who cast ballots Tuesday, Pickell received 202 votes.

"We're very well pleased with the turnout," Pickell said. "With the snow and everything, I was surprised at how many people turnout to vote."

This is Pickell's second time to run for election as mayor. He took over the position in 2000 after former mayor Woody Berry resigned from the position.

However, Pickell is not back in office yet.

Only two of the four mayoral candidates will advance to the April 1 general election. Pickell will face City Council member Stephanie Eickhoff, who received 134 votes, or 27.46 percent of the vote.

Challengers Karen Trent and Betty Waldo were eliminated from the race.

Trent, a first-time mayoral candidate, received 87 votes, 17.83 percent. Betty Waldo, a former City Council member, received 65 votes, 13.32 percent.

Six of the seven Edwardsville City Council candidates made the cut Tuesday.

Voters were asked to choose three of the seven candidates. Overall, 493 out of 2,488 register voters cast ballots, just more than 19 percent.

Again incumbents came out on top; however, one incumbent will not advance unless there is a change when the vote is made official Friday.

The elimination of the seventh candidate was close, only two votes separated the last two candidates, Cyndi Marble, 136 votes, and incumbent Kent Docking, 134 votes, and seven votes separated Docking from Bryan Alldaffer, who received 141 votes.

Election officials will canvass the ballots Friday, Feb. 28. The Chieftain will post the official results Friday on its Web site, www.bonnersprings.com. If the results remain the same, Docking will not advance to the general election.

Incumbent Ed Gillette came out on top with 233 votes, 19.34 percent of the total vote.

"I'm very, very happy with how it turned out," Gillette said. "I think it shows that people are happy with what I am doing."

Like Pickell, Gillette knows the campaign is far from over. He said he will continue to go door to door, meeting people and finding out what they want from their representatives.

If the primary results are any indication of how the general election will turn out, then it will be a close race for the three open positions on the City Council.

There were only 5 percentage points separating the top four vote getters Tuesday.

Council member Tim Kelly received 201 votes, 16.68; John Broman received 188 votes, 15.60 percent; and Jennifer Burnett received 172 votes, 14.72 percent.

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