Roswell Mayor, City Council Races Head To Runoff

ROSWELL, GA -- The horse races to fill the Roswell Mayor and City Council seats appear to be unresolved, as voters in the city will have to take on another round of voting to fill those slots.

The race to succeed long-time Mayor Jere Wood is up in the air, as neither of the four candidates running for the seat have received enough support to avoid a runoff. As of midnight and with all of the city precincts reporting results, Lori Henry is leading the four-way race with 38 percent, or 5,144 votes. She's followed by Lee Jenkins with 30 percent, or 4,034 votes; Donald Horton with 27 percent, or 3,675 votes; and Michael Litten with 5 percent, or 738 votes.

The races to fill the Post 4 and Post 5 seats on the City Council have proven to be clear victories for the respective winners. Marie Willsey has garnered enough support to avoid a runoff against challengers Andrew Leonardi and Meg McClanahan for the Post 4 seat. Willsey received 58 percent, or 7,037 votes. McClanahan follows with 31 percent, or 3,800 votes, and Leonardi with 11 percent or 1,364 votes.

For the Post 5 seat, Matthew Tyser has prevailed over challenger Keith Goeke with 55 percent, or 6,308 votes. Goeke got 45 percent, or 5,079 votes.

The three-way race to fill the Post 6 seat will advance to a runoff. Candidates Matt Judy and Karen Parrish with advance to the next stage of voting, as Judy received 49 percent, or 5,988 votes and Parrish got 38 percent, or 4,572 votes. Fellow candidate Gus Hadorn trailed with 13 percent, or 1,567 votes.

Last, but certainly not least is the special election to fill the Post 3 seat and it's no surprise that this six-candidate race will also move to a runoff. Hanny Alexander, Bassem Fakhoury, Sean Groer, Mike Nyden, Joe Piontek or George Vail did not reach the 50 percent mark to avoid the runoff. As of midnight, Nyden received 29 percent while Groer got 25 percent. The rest of the candidates polled below 15 percent.

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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