Lynn Purvis.

In an election in which voter turnout didn’t break the 20-percent mark, interim Superior Clerk Court Lynn Purvis pulled out a win Tuesday to fill an unexpired term.

In unofficial results, Purvis garnered 1,582 votes in the nonpartisan race. Her only opponent, Shannon Hart, the chief investigator with the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office, received 1,383 votes in the race.

Purvis, the deputy chief clerk for eight years, took over as interim clerk on March 1 after the retirement of former Clerk Carolyn Marshall, who resigned three months into a new four-year term.

It was the first political race for both Purvis and Hart, who took a leave of absence while a candidate.

“I’m very humbled by the supporters, the voters turning out for me,” Purvis said in a telephone interview after learning the results of the race Tuesday night. “It was a close race and I’m just thankful the voters believed in me and stood by me.”

Purvis had served in the clerk’s office for nearly 14 years, eight of those as the chief deputy clerk to Marshall. She will serve the remainder of Marshall’s unexpired term, which ends at the end of 2016.

“I’m going to do my best to be the very best clerk I can for Colquitt County,” she said.

Turnout in the race was barely above 17 percent. Despite a strong turnout during the three-weak early voting period, the county’s 19 voting precincts had little activity on election day.

The Moultrie precinct, for example, had 289, or 8.6 percent of 3,361 registered voters cast early ballots, and 281 — 8.36 percent of voters — voting on election day.

The other precinct located in Moultrie, Shaw, had 129 voters cast ballots on election day and 94 who voted early.

Election officials have three days to consolidate results, which will be completed on Friday, Probate Court Judge Wes Lewis said. He said he is not aware of any outstanding provisional ballots.