After all the political hoopla that surrounded the Marengo County Commissioner District 4 race between George Baldwin and Calvin Martin, who would have guessed the end would have come down to four little words “I withdraw my contest.”

The Marengo County Democratic sub-committee that was appointed by the chairman William Coplin to rule on the contest meet Monday night at the Marengo County Courthouse to listen to Baldwin discuss his contest, but that never happened.

There were problems with the legality of Baldwin’s challenge from the get go because he hadn’t done all the needed paperwork to officially contest the election results, according to Coplin.

“We’re meeting tonight to listen to Baldwin’s contest, but it may not take long because he hasn’t filed the proper paperwork to contest,” Coplin said.

During the meeting, Baldwin was asked to present his evidence as to the irregularity in the election, but instead he said he wasn’t going to contest due to a time lapse in filing the proper paperwork.

“I expected some leadership from the executive council, but I didn’t receive it,” Baldwin said, “And the time lapsed on me.”

Since this was the first time he has contested an election, he was hoping to receive some guidance, but didn’t, he said.

After his statement, George Jones, Martin’s attorney said he was here to answer the contest of Baldwin, but since that didn’t happen, he would like to congratulate the new commissioner of District 4.

“I’m glad all this is over and I would like to thank all the people that voted for a change,” Martin said.

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With one contest officially wrapped up, another still remains wide-open and the official sign-in list for the Democratic voters is still missing from the Akron boxes.

There still hasn’t been a date set for the contest hearing by the chairman of the Hale County Democratic Party Robert Shepard, she said.