WELLSBURG — A former Follansbee police officer and federal air marshal has been elected as the next Brooke County sheriff.

Richard Beatty, a Republican from Follansbee, garnered 6,851 votes, or about 66 percent, while Democrat Kevin Heck, a former sheriff’s deputy, received 3,456 votes, or about 33 percent.

Heck had defeated incumbent Larry Palmer in the primary election.

All totals are unofficial until ballots are canvassed at 9 a.m. Monday.

“I’m really happy the county had faith in me and gave me a shot,” said Beatty, who has pledged to increase public visibility for the sheriff’s department and maintain an open door through which residents may share their concerns.

Beatty said one concern he heard frequently while campaigning was about the many affected by opioid addiction.

“It’s super troubling. They want me to try to help these young people,” said Beatty, who has said while enforcing laws against drug-related crimes, he would like to see rehabilitation services become more accessible.

The race for sheriff was the only one to be decided on Tuesday, with several others determined in the primary election.

But interest in the presidential and other races motivated many voters to cast their ballots by mail, through early in-person voting or at the county’s polling places on Tuesday.

Brooke County Clerk Kim Barbetta said ballots were cast by 10,699 voters, more than 55 percent of the 19,157 who had registered.

Of them, 1,728 cast absentee ballots and 2,698 participated in early voting.

While those numbers were much higher than usual, there still were a total of 6,273 voters at polling places on Tuesday.

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)