Aditi Bussells wins Columbia City Council election

With all precincts reporting, Columbia has selected its next at-large city council member, according to unofficial results.

As of 9:30, Aditi Bussells lead with 10,593 votes (54%) and Tyler Bailey had 9,088 votes (46%) precincts reporting.

While Bussells is ahead by 1,505 votes, elections officials still need to audit the results. At least 12 of more than 70 precincts reported issues with voting machines Tuesday, but elections officials said the issues did not impede voting. However, the issues were significant enough to warrant an audit, which will happen Wednesday, The State reported previously.

State election officials will oversee the hand-counted vote audit.

More voters cast ballots Tuesday than they did two weeks ago for a Columbia City Council candidate. During the general election, voters cast 18,315 ballots in the City Council race and during the runoff, 19,681 voters cast ballots.

Bussells and Bailey faced off against a pool of seven candidates in the Nov. 2 general election. Since no candidate earned more than 50% of the votes, they faced off in a Tuesday runoff election. In the Nov. 2 election, Bussells walked away with 5,841 votes, which was 32% of votes; Bailey garnered 4,689 votes, which was 25.7% of the total.

Both candidates had some overlapping policies, with both promising to uplift historically underserved areas and attract new business to Columbia. Both candidates also led their peers in fundraising. As of Oct 27, Bailey had raised $103,903 throughout the election cycle and Bussells had raised $99,858, The State reported previously.

Bailey, a 32-year-old attorney and business owner, campaigned on fixing food deserts in low-income areas, fixing infrastructure and supporting law enforcement.

Bussells, a 31-year-old public health researcher, ran on a platform of promising to spur economic growth, improve infrastructure and reduce crime.

This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 7:44 PM.