Milton Mayor Joe Lockwood Wins Re-Election

ALPHARETTA-MILTON, GA -- Voters in the city of Milton have chosen to stick with the current leadership in the office of mayor. Unofficial results show Joe Lockwood defeated challenge Laura Rencher in the Nov. 7 election.

As of midnight and with all of the city precincts reporting, Lockwood won the race with 66 percent, or 2,959 votes. Rencher received 34 percent, or 1,493 votes. These unofficial results also show challenger Laura Bentley ousting incumbent Bill Lusk from the District 2, Post 1 City Council with 71 percent, or 3,164 votes. Lusk received 29 percent, or 1,278 votes.

Incumbent District 3, Post 1 Council member Joe Longoria and Peyton Jamison, the candidate seeking the District 1, Post 1 seat, were both unopposed.

Just next door in Alpharetta, incumbents Donald Mitchell of Post 1 and Chris Owen of Post 3 both ran unopposed for additional four-year terms. However, for the Post 2 seat, challenger Ben Burnett has defeated opponent Ben Easterling with 60 percent, or 2,224 votes. Easterling received 40 percent, or 1,480 votes.

As of midnight with 86 percent of the precincts reporting, Democrat Robb Pitts is leading the special election for Fulton County chair. Pitts leads with 38 percent, or 44,352 votes, and he's followed by fellow Democrat Keisha Waites with 34 percent, or 39,370 votes, and Republican Gabriel Sterling's 29 percent, or 33,625.

Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said about 130,000 voters cast ballots for the Nov. 7 elections. Broken down, that includes about 40,000 who voted early, 2,500 who voted by mail and roughly 88,000 who voted in person on Election Day.

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, about 11,000 people showed up at the polls around the county. That number increased to about 33,000 by 2:45 p.m. and swelled to 88,000 over the course of the day.

All in all, Barron added, turnout was slow and steady, and things proceeded smoothly across the county. Additionally, the county's call center for the Elections Department was also quiet.

"That's usually a good sign," he added.

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