An election staff member read unofficial vote totals for the City of Anniston’s 2025 general election during a public broadcast at Anniston City Hall and on the city’s online feed, reporting per-precinct and absentee counts for the mayoral contest, City Council wards and Anniston City Board of Education races.

The readout included per-precinct tallies from polling locations including Anniston Country Club, Wiggins Community Center, First Presbyterian Church (reported as the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama location), the Anniston Regional Fire Training Center, South Highland Community Center, the Anniston Senior Citizen Center and the Anniston City Meeting Center. The announcer also read absentee totals for the mayoral contest. The broadcast noted that several contests were unopposed.

In the mayoral readouts cited by precinct, Kevin Cheatwood, Steven Folkes, Ben Little, Sierra Smith and Michael Woods were reported with varying counts across precincts. For example, in one early precinct the announcer reported Sierra Smith with 219 votes, Kevin Cheatwood with 98, Steven Folkes with 81 and Ben Little with 14. Absentee totals read during the broadcast were Kevin Cheatwood 33, Steven Folkes 11, Ben Little 14, Sierra Smith 37 and Michael Woods 0. The announcer stated a citywide figure for the mayoral ballot count as 2,914 votes (not a candidate total but the total number of ballots reported for that contest during the broadcast).

Council and school board readouts were given by ward. The announcer read Ward 1, Ward 2 and Ward 4 City Council tallies and school board at-large and ward results; the broadcast repeatedly noted that Ward 1 and Ward 3 city council positions and Ward 1 and Ward 3 school board positions were unopposed and therefore had no contested totals. Examples cited during the readout included Ward 4 City Council totals of Julie Moss (240 votes) and Ashley Wilson (171 votes) at one precinct and Joan Frazier reported with high totals in the Ward 4 school board contest (322 votes in one precinct report).

The city announcer directed viewers that “all election results are unofficial until the election is canvassed.” The broadcast also stated that the election office would add the school board summary numbers and post a graphic after the broadcast ends.

The readout consisted of precinct-by-precinct counts and absentee numbers and did not include certified or canvassed results. The City of Anniston will publish official, canvassed results after the required canvass and certification process is complete.