Woodstock Mayor Cruises To Victory In Re-Election Bid

WOODSTOCK, GA -- Voters in Woodstock have re-elected incumbent Mayor Donnie Henriques to another four year term leading Cherokee County's largest city. Henriques has defeated challenger and former City Council member Liz Baxter with about three-fourths of the votes cast in the Nov. 7 election.

Henriques has received 74 percent, or 1,303 votes, compared to Baxter's 26 percent, or 448 votes. Results for the contested races on the Woodstock City Council are also in. For the Ward 1 race, incumbent Warren Johnson has defeated challenger Dennis Conway with 63 percent, or 1,039 votes. Conway received 36 percent, or 603 votes.

Henriques, who was dropping off food at one of the two Woodstock fire stations when reached by Patch, said he felt good about the big victory he received in Tuesday's results.

"I thank the Woodstock voters for believing in what we are doing in Woodstock and we are going to continue to improve," he added.

The Ward 3 seat will see a new face come January. Challenger Colin Ake has avoided a runoff with incumbent Bob Mueller and fellow challenger Judy Davila. Ake has won the race with 58 percent, or 1,000 votes. Mueller, the long-time incumbent, clocked in second place with 24 percent, or 408 votes. Davila trails with 19 percent, or 325 votes. Ward 5 candidate Brian Wolfe ran unopposed in the race to succeed Bud Leonard.

The city of Woodstock, which has 18,756 registered voters, had only 1,779 voters, or 9.5 percent, show up at the polls to elected their local representatives.

Cherokee County voters have also overwhelmingly given the green light in approving the renewal of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. The SPLOST renewal passed with 79 percent, or 7,204 votes. Twenty-one percent of voters, or 1,916 citizens, voted against the ballot question. Cherokee has 150,383 registered voters and only 6.1 percent of those citizens turned out to vote.

Results are unofficial until they are certified by the Cherokee County Board of Elections and Voter Registration. Return for updates.

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