It was a long election day in Atlanta, plagued by reports of precincts opening late and low turnout, but as the final precinct results trickled in some probable winners emerged.
Buckhead resident Mary Norwood held a small lead over incumbent Post 2 At-large Councilman Aaron Watson, leading with 51 percent. At midnight Tuesday there were 37 precincts not reported on the Fulton County website, so it’s possible the lead will change by tomorrow.
Other races looked more certain.
Incumbent District 4 Atlanta Board of Education member Nancy Meister led with 65 percent of the vote over challenger Taryn Bowman.
Incumbent Seat 8 At-large Atlanta Board of Education member Reuben McDaniel had 37.7 percent of the vote, meaning he will be forced into a runoff election on Dec. 3. His likely opponent is Cynthia Briscoe Brown, who had 26 percent of the vote, with 37 city precincts still outstanding.
Incumbent City Councilman Howard Shook had 71.6 percent of the vote over his challengers Bobby Montgomery and Abid Haque. There were still two precincts outstanding at midnight on Tuesday.
Incumbent City Councilwoman Felicia Moore had 66.21 percent of the vote, with four precincts outstanding, fending off challenges from Ricardo Mosby and Duwon Robinson.
The Board of Education race was the most surprising result. Conventional wisdom held that the tumultuous last four years at Atlanta Public Schools, which included a test cheating scandal that lead to criminal charges against the former school superintendent, would mean a likely defeat for incumbents. Overall the incumbents did well. At-large member Courtney English was headed toward reelection Tuesday evening and even McDaniel fended off three other challengers to make it to the Dec. 3 runoff. Only incumbent District 1 BOE member Brenda Muhammad lost, defeated by challenger Leslie Grant who drew 58.7 percent of the vote.