VALDOSTA — Former sheriff Ashley Paulk will be the new Lowndes County sheriff after he earned 57 percent of the vote against incumbent Sheriff Chris Prine in Tuesday’s election.

Paulk, a Democrat, garnered 20,907 votes compared to Prine’s 15,654 — a difference of 5,253 votes.

“I feel good,” Paulk said. “It was a good race for the most part. Chris Prine kept it pretty clean. I always have run a clean race, but I have 16 years of (experience). People knew what I would do and what I could do, and I feel like that had a lot to do with me winning. My celebration will be getting up in the morning at five o’clock and planning ahead to Jan. 1.”

Paulk served as sheriff for four consecutive terms from 1993-2009, opting not to seek a fifth term to instead run for a seat on the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners. He was the commission’s chairman from 2009-2013 before choosing not to seek a second term.

Prine has been sheriff for the past eight years, but he was not able to gain enough votes to win a third term. Prine said he called Paulk on election night to concede the race and that he’s proud of the people he’s worked with during the past eight years.

“There’s a bunch of good men and women that work with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office,” Prine said. “They’ve been good to me, and this community has been good to me. I’ve been the sheriff for two terms, and I’m very thankful for that. God’s been good to me. I’ve certainly enjoyed my career in law enforcement.”

Provisional ballots have not yet been counted. Official results will be confirmed by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office in the coming days.