Voters will return to the polls to decide a Marietta City Council race that ended without a winner during the Nov. 2 municipal election.
Ward 5 Councilman Reginald Copeland will face off against M. Carlyle Kent, a local real estate agent, in the winner-take-all affair Nov. 30.
The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration set the dates and hours for early voting leading up to the runoff on Monday.
Advance in-person voting will take place at the Board’s main office at 736 Whitlock Ave. NW in Marietta. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning Monday through Saturday, Nov. 20 and Nov. 22-23. Early voting ends Nov. 24 with hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The lone drop box location will be in the lobby of the elections office.
Kent was the lead vote getter in the three-person race last week, accumulating 38% of the ballots cast in the race. Copeland finished with about 34% of the vote, and Cristina Stallworth had about 28% to finish third.
Since no candidate tallied more than 50%, the top two will square off in a runoff.
Voters from two Marietta precincts will decide the race — those assigned Nov. 2 to vote either at Turner Chapel Cathedral, 492 N. Marietta Parkway; or Zion Baptist Church, 165 Lemon St.
Cobb County elections officials said there are 6,355 voters registered in the two precincts.
Eligible Ward 5 voters can cast ballots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the day of the runoff.
The elections board also certified the results of the Nov. 2 election during their meeting Monday afternoon.
Cobb County Elections Director Janine Eveler said absentee ballots for the runoff started going out Tuesday. The last day for the county to accept absentee ballots will be Nov. 19.
The elections board is expected to certify the results of the runoff Dec. 6.
Also during Monday’s meeting, Eveler briefed the elections board on issues at the polls on Nov. 2.
Three ballot scanners jammed and had to be replaced midday. Officials had to rescan ballots from two polls at the central office. Relentless Church in Powder Springs had to be evacuated after a fire alarm was set off in the building. Seven other polling locations opened between five and 30 minutes late, prompting a Superior Court judge to order them to remain open late.
Eveler said the biggest issue was high turnover, inexperienced poll managers and an unusually high amount of poll workers who quit without notifying officials in the days leading up to Election Day.
“That has been a new thing recently, and I’m sort of at a loss of how to manage that,” Eveler told the board. “I guess times have changed a little bit, and it’s harder to get people to commit to a one-day job that’s really quite lengthy and difficult.”
