Johnson wins District 5 Commission seat

Mereda Davis Johnson is the new DeKalb District 5 Commissioner, winning the seat in the runoff election held Tuesday. Johnson and George Turner were the top candidates in the June 19 special election, held to fill the seat formerly held by Lee May, the county’s current Interim CEO. Johnson received 2,003 votes, about 53 percent of the vote to George Turner’s 1,768, or 47 percent. According to Dekalb County Board of Elections, Only 3,778 voters, not quite 5 percent, of the district’s 82,732 registered voters went to the polls. Once the votes are certified, Johnson will be sworn into office, just as her husband represented District 5 for five years before winning the Fourth Congressional District seat in 2006.

“We have been without representation for two years,” Johnson said. “I am looking forward to working with all of my colleagues on the board.”