Tuesday night’s election for 5th Judicial Circuit Court Judge proved a bit tight at first, but Republican Mitch Shick walked away with the win.

Shick won against Democrat Steve Ferguson by a vote of 29,762-25,399.

“It feels wonderful,” Shick said. “(It was) a lot of hard work; it’s just a great feeling.

“It was truly a joy to run against a class individual like Steve Ferguson. We were friends during the campaign and we’ll be after.”

Although Ferguson didn’t walk away with a win Tuesday, he was satisfied with his campaign run.

“We ran the best race we could,” Ferguson said. “We’re satisfied with that.”

As far as plans for his position, Shick said he wants to work on preventing crime instead of just punishing it.

“(To) start looking forward to ways to improve our judicial system,” he said.

Those plans include bringing a “drug court” to Charleston, which works with first time drug offenders to treat their addiction instead of putting them directly in prison. The specialized program has been used in Vermilion County and been successful, Shick said.

“It tries to address issues in that defendants life,” he said.

In addition, he said the drug court program would reduce the amount of people in prison aiding the current problem of overcrowded jails in the area that has stemmed from the abundance of drug use and drug busts in the past few years.

Also Tuesday night, a proposition that limits the amount property taxes are raised each year also passed Tuesday night by 3,930 votes.

Among other elections was the county board; in district one, Republican George E. Edwards won over Democrat William A. Harrington 853-601. In district two, Republican John J. Hurst won uncontested as did Republican A. Max Davis in district three.

In district four, Republican Tim Gover won over Democrat Johna Shackles 1,118-501.

In county board district five, Republican Earl E. Volkman won against Democrat Robert Webb 709-550. In district six, Democrat John A. French won over Republican Paul D. Coffman 905-641.

In district seven, Democrat Robert Crowder won uncontested and in district eight Democrat Daniel Lawrence won against Jerome C. Groniger 652-528.

In district nine, Republican Janice K. Eads won uncontested as well as Republican Carl Furry in district 10. In district 11, Democrat Pat Black won against Republican Thomas E. Burton 546-483. Lastly, in district 12, Democrat Ray Allen won uncontested.

In the 5th Judicial District, Judges Ashton C. Waller, Tracy W. Resch and Dale A. Cini were retained.