After two elections, the result has been the same - Mary Ratliff twice has retained the state NAACP presidency by a one-vote margin, 29-28.
For the second time in less than four months, Nimrod (Rod) Chapel Jr. of Jefferson City has failed, by identical votes, in his bid to replace Ratliff, of Columbia, as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Missouri State Conference.
The votes were held on Sept. 24 and again Saturday.
Ratliff has been the statewide president for more than two decades, and has been president of the Columbia NAACP branch since 1976.
Chapel, an attorney and presiding commissioner of the state's three-member Administrative Hearing Commission, has been president of the NAACP's Jefferson City branch since 2009.