Two former public office holders will square off next month in the Democratic primary in special elections for the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Former State Rep. Erick Allen and former Cobb Board of Education member Jaha Howard each received more than 40 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special election in District 2, which includes a small portion of East Cobb (precinct-by-precinct results here).
They will be on the March 11 runoff ballot, since neither surpassed 50 percent of the vote.
Allen, who also was chairman of the Cobb legislative delegation, received 1,669 votes, or 46 percent, to 1,568 votes for Howard, or 43 percent.
Tracy Stevenson, a retired general contractor, had 432 votes, or nearly 12 percent.
The runoff winner will face Republican Alicia Adams in the April 29 general election.
The special elections were ordered by a Cobb judge after May 2024 primaries were invalidated due to electoral maps that were ruled to be in violation of the Georgia Constitution.
Cobb Elections estimates the special elections will cost around $1.5 million.
District 2 was held until last week by Jerica Richardson, a first-term Democrat who was drawn out of her East Cobb home by the Georgia legislature during reapportionment in 2022.
She and her two fellow Democrats on the commission voted to honor electoral maps drawn by the Cobb legislative delegation, then headed by Allen, that would have kept her in office.
Those “home rule” maps never received a vote in the legislature, but they were also used by the Cobb Board of Elections for the primaries.
Howard defeated Whorton in a Democratic runoff. At the same time, Adams appealed her disqualification under the “home rule” maps and won her legal challenge, setting off another wave of court battles involving Richardson.
Her last-ditch appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals to stay in office was ignored last week, for now the commission has only four of its five members.
Richardson was not on the dais at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
In District 4 in South Cobb, Democratic incumbent Monique Sheffield easily won the primary, getting more than 72 percent of the vote in a race with attorney Yashica Marshall.
In the general election, Sheffield will face Republican Matthew Hardwick.
Related:
- Richardson removed from office after appeals court rejection
- Richardson resumes seat as Cobb commission drama continues
- Richardson’s Cobb commission seat declared vacant by judge
- East Cobb-area resident qualifies for special election
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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The runoff is March 11, 2025, not March 3rd. Please revise.