Panola County Tax Assessor O’Dell Draper, Jr., survived a strong challenge by David Garner, the person he beat four years ago to win the seat, in Tuesday’s General Election, winning  by 177 votes.

Draper won 5,663 to 5,486 after absentee ballots had been counted.  A few provisional ballots were left for examination Wednesday morning, but those cannot change the outcome of the race.

The Wednesday, Nov. 15, print edition of The Panolian will include breakdowns by precinct for each county race.