GOVERNMENT

3 Athens-Clarke commission races settled, with one preparing for a June runoff election

Athens Banner-Herald

Tiffany Taylor, John Culpepper, and Ovita Thornton won their Athens-Clarke County commission races Tuesday, as candidates in District 5 prepared for a runoff.

By Wednesday morning, not all votes had been counted in District 1 as one precinct remained unreported.

Of the 10 Athens-Clarke County Commission commission seats, the five odd-numbered districts were on the Tuesday ballot:

District 1, currently held by Patrick Davenport
District 3, currently held by Melissa Link
District 5, currently held by Tim Denson
District 7, currently held by Russell Edwards
District 9, currently held by Ovita Thornton

Link, Denson and Edwards were unable to run again following redistricting, while Davenport and Thornton sought re-election. Thornton ran unopposed in her district, leaving Davenport the only incumbent to face opposition.

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District 1

Audrey Hughes looked to challenge incumbent Davenport and as of Wednesday morning, Davenport was ahead. Results from a final precinct had yet to be reported.

With 80% of the votes in, Davenport was leading with 1,908 votes, or 59% of those cast. Hughes had 1,337, or 41%.

District 3

Tiffany Taylor won the seat by 150 votes against Asia Thomas. With 100% of the precincts reported, Taylor had 54% of the votes and Thomas had 46%.

“I’m just grateful that I won and just ready to get to work,” said Taylor.

District 5

This was the only commission race to see more than two candidates, with Jared Bailey, Dexter Fisher and Matt Pulver vying for the seat.

With all precincts reported, Fisher had 49.63% of the votes to Pulver's 27%, sending them to a June runoff election.

Bailey garnered 21%.

“I need people to go out and knock on doors, every door in the fifth district and explain to them please why we need to continue the progressive path that we have charted,” said Pulver.

“I appreciate the voters and if we do have to go into a run-off, I hope they'll come back out and support me again,” said Fisher.

This race was close and not all residents in District 5 were able to vote in the commission race. Last week, the elections office reported two errors on ballots, including one mistake for residents on Hunnicutt Drive.

Those residents live in District 5, however, they were assigned to District 2 so the commission race did not appear on their ballots.

At least nine voters were affected by the mistake during early voting. Under Georgia law, those voters cannot change or recast their votes.

On Election Day, it was discovered the mistake was still present on ballots, affecting 17 more voters, according to Rocky Raffle, chair of the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections and appointee of the Democratic Party.

District 7

John Culpepper and Allen Jones faced off with Culpepper securing the victory. Culpepper pulled in 55% of the vote to Jones' 45%.

“I'm thrilled. I'm so excited [with] the level of support that I had in my community,” said Culpepper.

District 9

Thornton, first elected in 2018, ran uncontested. Despite facing no opposition, Thornton received 1,108 votes.