Early voting ends today for Hiram’s Post 3 city council race, which will be decided in citywide balloting Tuesday.

Billy Sims Jr. led Nov. 3 voting for the seat being vacated by retiring Councilman Charles Schafer, garnering 57 votes to Teresa (Laird) Philyaw’s 55. Stephen S. Bray forced the top two contenders into Tuesday’s runoff, taking 19 votes Nov. 3. Both survivors from Nov. 3 voting are lifelong Paulding residents.

Advance votes were being accepted the first three days of this week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hiram Community Center or the county elections office at Watson Government Complex.

Other voters will go to the polls at Hiram Community Center between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The cousin of retiring Post 4 Hiram Councilman Alvin Sims, the leading vote-getter Nov. 3 is an electrician who studied at Marietta Tech. A 1984 graduate of Paulding County High School, he is the husband of April Sims and father of Billy Sims III, 17, and Charlie, 7. Sims is a member of Sweet Home Baptist Church.

His priorities are finding funds to hire more police officers and coping with the city’s growth.

Philyaw is a 1968 graduate of Paulding County High School and retired real estate agent. The wife of Richard and mother of Jana Chesney and Paul Laird wants to focus on job-creation and creating opportunities for young people to stay and work in Paulding. She supports in-house police dispatching and wants to improve Hiram traffic as state funding allows. Philyaw is a member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.

Whoever is elected Dec. 1 will take the oath of office at the Dec. 15 City Council meeting along with Derrick Battle, who was unopposed in Post 4, and Earlene Graham, who won the Post 5 race.