September 17th Election Results

Lynn Purvis won the election for Clerk of Superior Court in Colquitt County, upgrading her title from Interim Clerk by a margin of 1582-1383 over Shannon Hart. From the Moultrie Observer:

“I’m very humbled by the supporters, the voters turning out for me,” Purvis said in a telephone interview after learning the results of the race Tuesday night. “It was a close race and I’m just thankful the voters believed in me and stood by me.”
Purvis had served in the clerk’s office for nearly 14 years, eight of those as the chief deputy clerk to Marshall. She will serve the remainder of Marshall’s unexpired term, which ends at the end of 2016.

Turnout in the race was barely above 17 percent. Despite a strong turnout during the three-weak early voting period, the county’s 19 voting precincts had little activity on election day.
The Moultrie precinct, for example, had 289, or 8.6 percent of 3,361 registered voters cast early ballots, and 281 — 8.36 percent of voters — voting on election day.
The other precinct located in Moultrie, Shaw, had 129 voters cast ballots on election day and 94 who voted early.

An earlier article in the Observer noted that 1,139 ballots were cast during early voting, so my trust calculator tells me that’s a little more than 38% of ballots received in the three weeks before election day. Candidates and their friends should note that we no longer have a single election day, but a three-week election period; your campaign should plan accordingly.

In Miller County, Ga., the election was a blow-out, with Interim Sheriff Shane Rathel taking nearly 74% of the vote. From WTVY in Dothan, Alabama:

Shane Rathel 1329

Scott Lawson 45

RJ LeFrancois 32

Mike Middleton 399

Macon-Bibb County Election Results

Macon this year has been a microcosm of Georgia politics: it bucked the trend toward carving cities out of existing counties; featured racial and partisan issues during the session that lasted through yesterday’s elections; federal ~~interference~~ involvement from the United States Department of Justice; the Supreme Court’s overturning of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act; lawsuits; election qualification challenges; early voting and election day snafus; and it wouldn’t be Georgia elections without runoffs.

Without further ado, here’s the election results:

Mayor: Macon Mayor Robert Reichert came in first, but narrowly missed avoiding a runoff election, where he will meet C. Jack Ellis, who previously served as Mayor having won elections in 1999 and 2003. Reichert took 49% to 30% for Ellis; Bibb County Commission Chair Sam Hart came in third with 11% and has not announced whether he’ll endorse in the October 15th runoff.

The runoff will be a rematch of the 2011 Mayoral race between Reichert and Ellis, which Reichert won by 500 votes in the runoff.

Quote of the day for Macon politics goes to Ellis, who after early returns showed Reichert winning without a runoff, said later when the margin tightened, “I unconcede.”

The Macon-Telegraph has a great interactive map of the vote totals in the Mayoral race.

District 1: Gary Bechtel, a Republican member of the Bibb County Commission, was elected to the Macon-Bibb County Commission with 82% of the vote.

District 2: Runoff election between Larry Schlesinger (42.4%) who has served six years on Macon City Council and Henry Ficklin (39.4%), who has served for thirty years.

District 3: Elaine Lucas, a sitting Macon City Council member won with nearly 56% of votes cast over Terry Tripp in a very polarized race:

The tallies were strongly polarized by precinct. In East Macon 3 and East Macon 5 precincts, Lucas beat Tripp in a 2-to-1 margin. In Rutland 2, however, Tripp won with an 11-to-1 margin.

District 4: Mallory Jones (47.2%) narrowly missed winning without a runoff and will face Beverly Olson (30.9%) in round two. Jones ran for Bibb County Commission last year, losing a tight race, while Olson serves on Macon City Council.

District 5: Bibb County Commissioner Bert Bivins took the win with 55.2% over two opponents.

District 6: Voters get a second chance to vote and will choose between Ed DeFore (46.7%) and Adah Roberts (24.6%). DeFore sits on Macon City Council, where he was first elected in 1971, the year in which I was born. Roberts had already conceded the race earlier in the evening before results tightened and forced a runoff.

District 7: Scotty Shepherd won with 58.1 percent of the vote over two opponents. This race was unique for having no incumbents on the ballot and it also appears to have been a very civil – friendly, even – campaign.

District 8: Virgil Watkins (40.7%) and Charles Jones (38.1%), both incumbent Macon City Council members, are heading to a runoff election. Watkins was first elected to City Council in 2007 and Jones in 2011.

District 9: Al Tillman (60%) won big over incumbent City Council President James Timley (40%). Tillman also wins the GaPundit award for most entertaining candidate in the Macon-Bibb elections. His victory speech followed a karaoke version of “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang. Part of Tillman’s defense against Timley’s challenge of his residency in the district, Tillman noted that he kept a full refrigerator in his apartment in the district, and said, “I didn’t get this size just snacking.”

Constitution Day

I was on WGAU 1340 AM with Tim Bryant yesterday to talk about voting troubles in the Macon-Bibb elections and will be talking to Martha Zoller this morning around 7:15 if you’d like to tune in.

Click here for yesterday’s audio.

I am awarding +1 to 12-year old Macie Kelley a seventh-grade student at from Kathleen, Ga., for this quote, via the Macon Telegraph:

It’s essential to remember “who made the laws,” said Macie, a seventh-grader at Mossy Creek Middle School. “If you want to be a leader, you can always look back and remember the things that it says.”

Straw Poll from Buckhead Young Republicans Meeting

The Buckhead Young Republicans held a straw poll for the US Senate race last night with all announced GOP candidates on the ballot.

With 31 votes cast, here’s the breakdown:

Jack Kingston 51.6%
Karen Handel 16.1%
Derrick Grayson 16.1%
Phil Gingrey 9.7%
Paul Broun 3.2%

Thanks to BYRs Chairman Greg Williams for the heads-up.

Great Facebook content from Women for Gingrey

I’ve mentioned before that I think the Women for Gingrey did a great job of choosing their t-shirts. Now, one of them has done a great job of turning those pink shirts into great Facebook content.

Three things stand out about this photo as Facebook content: (1) it’s eye-catching and makes great use of those pink shirts; (2) the inclusion of the Strand Theatre gives it a sense of geography specific to the heart of his current District; (3) there is no additional text layered on top.