Fresh Loaf

This year’s city runoff elections are the most important in years, what with the mayor’s office, the Council presidency and two of the Council’s 15 seats up for grabs. It’s doubly depressing, then, to hear about how lousy turnout is likely to be.

Therefore, we’re asking you, the voters, to show up in force at the polls. And so, in order to stoke your enthusiasm, we’re offering you four compelling reasons to head to your local polling place next Tuesday. After all, as the man said, if you don’t take part in the process, you can’t complain about the results.

Continue reading ‘CL’s guide to the runoffs’ >>

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

Thought you fulfilled your duty as a citizen on Nov. 3? Think again! Several local races are still undecided, and from now until Nov. 20 you can vote early to beat the Dec. 1 “crowds” (aka five voters who turn out for runoffs).

Among the contested races:

• Atlanta mayor, between Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed.

• Atlanta City Council president, between Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller.

• Atlanta City Council Post 2 At-Large, between Amir Farokhi and Aaron Watson.

• Atlanta City Council District 6, between Liz Coyle and Alex Wan.

• State House District 58, between Simone Bell and Asha Jackson.

• State Senate District 35, between Donzella James and Torrey O Johnson.

From Nov. 23-25, you can participate in Advance Voting. After that, your last chance to vote for the city’s next elected officials is Dec. 1. If you registered prior to Oct. 5, you should be good to go. If you didn’t vote on Nov. 3, you can still come out and cast a ballot for the runoff. Remember to bring a photo ID and thank the kind folks manning the polls.

UPDATE: You can also vote by absentee ballot. Download an application PDF here. Fax the completed application to your County Board of Registrars office. You can find their info here. They’ll mail you a ballot. Fill it out, mail it back, or deliver it to your polling location. Just be sure to do so before polls close on Dec. 1.

After the jump, we present a Fulton and DeKalb County poll location list that we’ve shamefully pulled from the City of Atlanta’s “Election Central” portal.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Politicos know that a bulging campaign war chest doesn’t guarantee victory. (Paging Roy Barnes…) Next to incumbency, however, it’s usually the best indicator of which candidate has the edge.

And by all known rules of thumb, Commissioner Burrell Ellis looks to be running away with the runoff race to become the county’s next CEO. For starters, before the end of June, Ellis raised $421,000 – more than all four of his opponents put together.

We didn’t have a chance to compare his contributions with those of the runner-up, state Rep. Stan Watson – mainly because Watson was several days late in filing his report. But now that we have both sets, we see that Ellis has all the earmarks of a sure thing.
(more…)

Bookmark It