Three incumbents on the DeKalb County school board secured their seats, while four others were headed to runoff elections, according to an unofficial tally Wednesday.
The DeKalb election office had Marshall Orson, Melvin Johnson and Joyce Morley in easy leads to hold their seats. And, of course, newcomer Stan Jester, who ran unopposed for an open seat, is guaranteed a place on the seven-member board come January.
The results were messier for Michael Erwin, Karen Carter, Jim McMahan and Thad Mayfield. They were facing runoff elections, with Erwin chased by Atticus LeBlanc and Mayfield by Vickie Turner, though former school board member Jesse “Jay” Cunningham was trailing Turner by less than a percentage point. The election office expects to put out a final, official, tally later Wednesday that will confirm the rankings.
One curious race will see a runoff between two incumbents: Karen Carter, appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal, led in elected board member Jim McMahan’s district. McMahan was elected two years ago, and Carter, who lives in McMahan’s district, was appointed to a county-wide seat that was dissolved by the General Assembly this year. Both will square off at the runoff election July 22.
Since this was a non-partisan race, it was the general election for school board.
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