Voters on Tuesday returned Mark Butler to the Georgia House of Representatives, but left two primary races undecided.

Candidates for Carroll County clerk of court and the District 5 seat on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners will face off in an Aug. 5 runoff election.

Butler defeated challenger Kevin Cooke in the District 18 House race in the Republican primary. While Cooke was just 46 votes shy of Butler in Carroll County, Butler received enough support in Haralson County to stretch his eventual margin of victory to 10 percent.

Butler said Cooke ran a strong campaign and promised to help him in any future political endeavors.

Support for the 28-year-old challenger was not limited by party lines.

“I was pleased that Kevin Cooke did as well as he did,” said Ray Harris, treasurer for the county chapter of the Democratic party. “If I had voted on the Republican ballot, I would have voted for him.”

Butler does not face opposition in November’s general election.

Randy Simpkins, the District 5 representative on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, finished second to challenger Kevin Jackson in Tuesday’s Republican balloting, but did force a runoff. Kirby Hamil finished third and is out of the race.

“We expected a runoff, and when you’re an incumbent, it’s easy for people to throw darts at you,” said Simpkins, who is seeking his third term on the Board of Commissioners. “I’m thankful to my supporters, and I hope they come out in August.”

Jackson said that finishing ahead of Simpkins -- he had 786 votes to Simpkins’ 602 -- is proof he’s doing something right and even more important because it was against a sitting commissioner.

“I’ve had the same message throughout the campaign. It’s about protecting our heritage,” he said. “As an incumbent he gets a head start. At the beginning of the day he gets an extra 10 or 15 percent [of voters] automatically.”

The runoff winner will claim the seat since there is no Democratic opposition in November.

Republican Ashley Hendrix finished with more than half the total votes for the District 3 commission seat. She defeated challengers Bryan Hager and Jeff Nalley to earn a spot against Democrat Mac Pilgrim in the general election.

Neither candidate for chairman of the Board of Commissioners -- incumbent Bill Chappell, a Republican, and Democrat Herman Ayers, who resigned from the board to campaign for chairman -- had primary opposition and will meet in the general election.

Democrat Trent North, a veteran commissioner, will return to office, with no opposition in either the primary or the general election.

Winning outright Tuesday, Vickie Bearden bested Bob Uglum and Trent Marlow in the county tax commissioner race on the Republican ballot. She emerged with 50.8 percent of the total vote and avoided a runoff by only a fraction of a percent. With her win, she will face Democrat Selassie Wallace in the general election in November.

In the clerk of court race -- one in which there was no incumbent -- Lucy Beck and Alan Lee are optimistic and preparing for their runoff election. Beck edged out Lee with 42 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Kaye Burson finished third with 19 percent of the vote.

The key to success in the runoff will be continuing to connect with voters on a personal level, Lee said.

“We’re going to contact as many people as we can personally and kick it up a notch to see if we can convince people to come out and vote again,” he said. “That’s the campaign we’ve been running, and we’re going to keep to it.”

The winner will succeed Kenneth Skinner, who did not seek re-election after more than three decades on the job.

The clean and personal nature of all the local campaigns was important to maintaining the integrity of the election process and has provided for some exciting runoff elections, said Carroll County Republican Party Chairman Terry Agne.

“I think that the candidates ran clean campaigns,” he said. “They respected each other. They ran on their own issues. Any time in an election, you’re going to have winners and losers, and the thing is that the people that are in the runoffs, and the people that do eventually win, will represent the county with the utmost respect for the citizens of the community.”

A number of other candidates faced no primary opposition but will meet in the general election, including state Sens. Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton, and Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg. Hamrick will face Democrat Pat Rhudy in the District 30 race, and Seabaugh is challenged by Democrat Betty Aaron in District 28.

Sheriff Terry Langley, a Republican, runs for re-election against Democratic challenger Billy Harp on the November ballot.