It wasn’t their first rodeo, as the saying goes. Lebanon Special School District Board of Education candidates Johnie Payton and Steve Jones squared off for a second time in three months.

Tuesday's re-match in this election left Jones the winner by nine votes. Jones posted 4,585 votes, or 49.86 percent, and Payton received 4,576 votes, or 49.77 percent.

“It’s been pretty terrifying. We went through this the last time and never imagined that it would be this close again,” Jones said. “I thought she would beat me really bad or I would beat her pretty good. You just never know . . . it goes to show you how important it is to get out and vote.”

He added, “Johnie ran a clean race and I’d like to think I did too.”

In August, the two faced each other for the first time with Payton, a retired school teacher, squeezing out a narrow one-vote margin of victory over the longtime incumbent.

The August election was challenged in Chancery Court by Jones, who was seeking re-election to the school board seat.

Chancellor C.K. Smith ruled that because of certain election deficiencies primarily surrounding a failure for some voters to be recognized as being registered and qualified to vote in the Lebanon Special School District, the election results should be voided and a second election held on Election Day, Nov. 6.