Franklinton voters will decide on their fifth town alderman, during the Dec. 10 runoff election.

Neither Doug Brown nor Darwin Sharp earned enough votes to win without a runoff, according to the Louisiana secretary of state’s mathematical formula for determining a winner outright.

Technically Sharp earned more votes with 552, but Brown earned only three less with 549.

However, Washington Parish Clerk of Court Johnny Crain explained that a crowded field of 10 candidates made it hard for any five candidates to win enough of the overall votes to win outright. According to the state’s formula, in order for a candidate to have won the Franklinton race, he or she would have had to capture at least 10 percent of the total number of voters in the election.

“You take the total number of votes cast and divide by the number of seats being filled and once you divide by five, then you divide by two and then that is 559 votes they had to get to win in the first primary,” Crain said.

By that measure, Sharp was short by seven votes and Brown was short by 10.

The next Election Day will be Saturday, Dec. 10. However, early voting begins later this month on Saturday, Nov. 26, and will continue through Saturday, Dec. 3.

The last day to register to vote in this election was Wednesday, Nov 2.