Republican Nancy Jester will become DeKalb County’s next commissioner after defeating independent Holmes Pyles in a runoff election Tuesday.
Jester replaces Elaine Boyer, who pleaded guilty to defrauding taxpayers of $93,000 and resigned in August.
She will represent more than 140,000 people in Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville, Dunwoody, Tucker and surrounding areas.
Jester, a former DeKalb school board member, said she would be a watchdog over taxpayer money and give the public online access to government financial records.
Jester won by a 3-to-1 margin over Pyles, 86, a retired state government employee who had never before run for office.
The runoff election was needed because none of the five candidates in the Nov. 4 election received more than 50 percent of the vote.
Turnout was very low Tuesday, with only 7 percent of registered voters casting ballots.
About 48 percent of the North DeKalb’s more than 74,000 voters participated in last month’s election.
About three dozen voters had shown up to cast ballots as of mid-afternoon at Huntley Hills Elementary, one of 37 polling places.
“If nobody votes, the wrong person might get in,” said Neil Kocina, who was the 38th voter of the day at the school. “My vote has a lot of power.”
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