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Election officials not surprised by small turnout

DeKalb County election officials said Tuesday’s small voter turnout was about what they expected since there were mostly small municipal races. The Atlanta mayoral race affected DeKalb’s nine Atlanta precincts.

Officials knew what to expect before the polls opened on Tuesday. The 21-day early voting period, the advanced voting week and mail-in ballots generated only 558 votes for the 18 municipal races, plus the Atlanta races. Only 108 voters took advantage of the three-week early voting period, 220 filled out a ballot the week before Tuesday’s election and there were 230 ballots mailed in.

Among the DeKalb municipalities, the Decatur races drew the most voters. Both of the city’s commission races and both board of education races had more than 1,000 votes. A total of 2,552 ballots were cast in the BOE at-large race between Valarie Wilson and Robert Pope. Wilson won the election by 20 votes.

By contrast, only 25 people in two precincts turned out to vote for mayor in Stone Mountain. Patricia Wheeler won that race with 19 votes. A five-person city council race there drew 68 votes.


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