UPDATE: Bryan Brinyark has won a tight runoff election and earned the GOP nomination for House District 16 - he'll advance to a January General election.

Polls are closed in Tuesday's special election Republican primary runoff between Northport's Bryan Brinyark and Fayette's Brad Cox.

The open District 16 seat was made vacant earlier this year when Republican Kyle South resigned to become President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama.

The District includes parts of Fayette County, north Tuscaloosa County and west Jefferson County.

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A handful of Republicans qualified to seek their party's nomination to run in a January general election for the vacant seat, and Brinyark and Cox led the pack in a September primary.

Neither secured a plurality of the votes, though, forcing the Tuesday runoff. The margins between the two candidates were razor-thin in September - Brinyark earned 1,201 votes and Cox drew 1,216.

Only the counting of the votes will show which man capitalized on last month's momentum.

This is a live results post that will be updated as results are shared by the Alabama Secretary of State's Office.

Alabama House District 16 Primary Runoff Election Results

Republican Party:

Bryan Brinyark: 1,706 votes

Brad Cox: 1,528 votes

UPDATE, 9:00 P.M.: That's 100 percent of the vote counted, and Brinyark has defeated Cox in a close race. Cox narrowly carried the September primary, but Brinyark's support in Fayette County surged during the runoff and carried him to victory,