Alex Monsour has been declared the unofficial winner of Vicksburg’s South Ward alderman seat.

The race for Vicksburg’s South Ward alderman was a close one, with opponents Monsour and Vickie Bailey coming down to a margin of fewer than 70 votes.

The incumbent Monsour, a Republican, had the lead as of 10:28 p.m. Tuesday, with 1,172 votes to Bailey’s 1,016 votes. Bailey ran on the Democratic ticket.

There were 206 absentee ballots cast prior to election day, which were added to the total number of votes. However, not all absentee ballots were cast in the South Ward.

There are still 19 mail-in absentee ballots that need to be counted. They will be added to the total number of votes over the next five days, as they are delivered. However, the mail-in absentees will not affect the outcome of this race.

This will mark Monsour’s second term. Bailey, the former city youth development/network director, was running for her first term as alderman. 

Monsour defeated former South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson in a close race in 2017 to win his first term on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Bailey defeated Thomas “TJ” Mayfield in the April 6 Democratic Party primary. Monsour was unopposed in the primaries.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, who ran unopposed in the primary election, received 1,488 votes.