Scott Drake Defeats Greg Coleson By 14 Votes For City Commission Seat
Decatur Metro | March 19, 2013 | 9:21 pmUPDATE: A bit more detail. If you know where to look on the state’s website you can find more detailed info on the vote.
Absentee by Mail Votes
2 – Coleson
2 – Drake
Advance in Person
10 – Coleson
5 – Drake
Clairemont East
234 – Coleson
186 – Drake
Clairemont West
159 – Coleson
169 – Drake
Glenwood
53 – Coleson
100 – Drake
Ponce de Leon
67 – Coleson
77 – Drake
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Wow. Georgia’s Election Results website shows that Scott Drake beat Greg Coleson by just 14 votes to take Bill Floyd’s seat on the Decatur City Commission, with a final tally of 539 to 525. That means that Drake received 50.66% of the vote to Coleson’s 49.34%.
The seat’s term runs through 2015.
With a race this close and an influx of Decatur-ites, I wonder if any provisional ballots were cast? They are not reflected in the total. Georgia law gives them 2 days to resolve eligibility. I assume the total does reflect early voting ballots.
Patch says that only two provisional ballots have yet to be considered.
If the two provisional votes are Coleson, doesn’t that trigger a run off?
Not sure what you mean by “trigger a runoff?”
Drake won by 14 votes, so it doesn’t really matter who the 2 provisional ballots cast were for.
What am I missing?
I think you may have meant “recount”, and I don’t think that’s true under Decatur’s charter. Even if 3 people were running and nobody had a majority, the one with the most votes would have won under the City’s charter.
I love it when my vote counts! However, I’m sad that so few people came out to vote! I hope Scott does an amazing job filling the shoes left by Bill Floyd, and I believe he will. That said, I think Greg was a great choice as well. We are very lucky to have had two great candidates!
OMG, someone call the Florida Supreme Court! Or Katherine Harris! Count all the hanging chads!
Good times, good times.
No hanging chads. Misappropriated electrons? I am glad I voted, and am also disappointed that only 12% turned out. In any low turnout election, it all boils down to who gets the vote out.
12% of Decatur voters or 12% of affected voters in that district? It doesn’t add up that we’d have over 10,000 registered voters on the north side. Where did that number come from?
It’s 1064 votes out of 8125 registered voters in 4 northside precincts, according to the Georgia Election Results website: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/DeKalb/45912/115518/en/reports.html#. That’s 13.1% voter turnout. Pretty poor but it’s still over a thousand people in the northside bothering to vote. I tried to talk it up to Decaturites at work and none even knew there was an election. They must have thrown out the flyers from Scott and Greg with the junk mail.
Happy to say I voted, thanks again for the reminder AHID, but I never received one mailing from either candidate. Maybe some streets got them and others didn’t. Regardless, there were enough signs around, and DM too, to remind people to go and vote. I never understood why people without a valid excuse don’t vote.
Here’s one view: life is all about allocating time.
How much does local government affect you on a daily basis? How does that compare to all the other stresses and pressures in an individual’s life? Does that person have the time and/or energy to put towards keeping up on local gov’t?
12% of the voters in District 1. Do the math: 929 total votes, 8996 registered voters in the district: http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/Voter/pdf/SOVC_20121106.pdf
That link takes you to last November’s election, not last Tuesday’s.
Well now, that’s interesting. Are you saying that our turnout was better for a special election than it was for the general November election? Maybe not by much, but at least it contradicts the suggestion that people cared even less than normal for this one.
I haven’t had the time yet to tally those numbers for the November election. Seems like turnout would have had to be much higher than 12%. Something is off but I’m not sure what.
Turnout was 70-80% in all Decatur precincts for the November 2012 general election vs. 13% for yesterday’s election. So not even close.
13% is even lower than usual for a Decatur municipal election. When its a regularly scheduled election, instead of a special, we usually get 20-25%.
Zombies.
Wow, that was really close, and I kind of know close races in Decatur! Congratulations to both candidates for a job well done!
Well said Rob. Thank you Scott and Greg for your willingness to serve. Couple of things I have learned in my years in Decatur…..
1. I am thankful to live in a community where the citizens are so passionate.
2. Some elections are between two excellent candidates.
3. We can disagree on some topics and agree on others, but in the end we all want what is best for the city.
4. Those you disagree with are often the ones you find on your side in the next debate.
Keep it civil people.
PS – Rob -you still have my vote:)
“I am thankful to live in a community where the citizens are so passionate.”
Seemingly, only 12% are passionate.
I’m just happy that there were as many votes as posts on the topic. We are not yet all couch potatoes.
I do think that voter turnout would jump tremendously if folks could vote electronically from home. I realize the logistical and security challenges of that. And it would be another blow for physical activity if one didn’t even have to walk into a polling place………..
+1
ARE you running again, Rob :)?
I wanna see some school board shake up!
Go Rob!
Thanks Nellie and others for the inquiry. I was asked that very question more than a few times this weekend. Short answer – I haven’t decided…. Longer answer – I love what I’m doing now – coaching 26 U10 girls in soccer, teaching geology at every CSD school that invites me, and staying involved in the schools at a direct level whenever I can. I also would like to see some new, engaged people on the school board and am hopeful that there is interest from others. I’ll let DM readers (and Decaturites in general) know as we get closer to the August deadline.
Go Ro-ob! Go Ro-ob! Go Ro-ob!
Greg is such an important part of this community. I hope there’s no hard feelings.
Wow. I think I nailed it when I said it was two good candidates and two strong campaigns. Evidently voters felt the same way and split down the middle. Now I see why Mayor Emeritus Floyd felt it necessary to endorse Scott and help his campaign. Hope Greg runs again for a local office. Usually folks have an easier time winning after losing a race–the name recognition thing is already conquered. And a bigger font on those signs might help too!
I have got to hand it to Nicole Coleson this morning. I’ve never seen a more bubbly campaigner out on the street! I’ll bet several of Greg’s votes were based on her irresistable enthusiasm.
Bill Floyd has not been named Mayor Emeritus. Right now there’s only one person with that title – Elizabeth Wilson.
Whoops. I didn’t realize that was a real title. I thought I was making it up, riffing from the title “Professor Emeritus” Not trying to take anything away from the great Mayor Emeritus Elizabeth Wilson. I just have a hard time not calling Mr. Floyd, Mayor Bill Floyd! Will have to work on X-Mayor Floyd until it becomes natural.
Greg ran an upbeat, positive campaign that was put together in a matter of four weeks. It was truly a grassroots effort. If you voted for Greg, you should be proud.
Please congratulate him and thank him when you see him.
Decatur is a great place to live.
See you, soon!
+1 A POSITIVE and substantive campaign that gained momentum daily. Wow, indeed.
Now that I see the votes by precinct, I’m reminded by how local politics really can be. Greg trounced Scott in Clairemont East where he lives and Scott trounced Greg in Glennwood where he lives. Neighbors count. Familiarity counts.
When there’s two good candidates, I really hope that the “loser” eventually wins. It would be good to have both Scott and Greg on the Commission. I feel the same way about the School Board. I’d like to see Garrett Goebel and Peg Bumgardner both on the Board.
And Rob Pope!
Meant to say that.
This proves the point I made earlier – every vote matters and if you were eligible and didn’t vote – SHAME ON YOU ! Overall turnout less that 12%. That means 88% of voters have no grounds to complain about any decision Mr Drake makes until the next election.
Congrats to both men – I think Decatur would have won either way.
Why does everyone feel that everyone should vote? If people don’t bother educating themselves on the candidates, their positions, etc., I would assume they just stay home. For the record, I voted yesterday. But, both were strong candidates and I could certainly understand how a lot of people felt they would be in good hands either way.
One could take the position that it is an obligation to be educated on the candidates. I know that’s nirvana, but more then 12% should care.
What are your points of comparison?
Well then paint a big red A on my forehead and shame on me. The ‘A’ standing for ‘absent’, of course. Now I’m all about civic duty but let’s put this in its proper context: It’s not November and this election was for a single city commission seat that aside from a few yard signs and postings on blogs such as this, received relatively little publicity. So please forgive the 88% of us who may not have had this on our collective radar. My excuse? I forgot – plain and simple (I tend to forget about a LOT more things now that I’m over 40:). Am I happy about it? No, but stuff happens.
Anyway, I imagine Decatur’s 12% turnout was actually pretty respectable compared to turnouts for similar races in neighboring jurisdictions. If this race was held in Atlanta the turnout probably would have been two percent. And rather than label the 88% as lazy apathetic dolts, perhaps many of us realized we would be happy with whoever won.
So even though I may have no grounds to complain about any of Mr. Drake’s future decisions, rest assured that should the need arise, I will complain and complain with glee and reckless abandon to anyone with ears who will listen. Starting here on this blog, of course.
Dear Greg,
There is another election in just 8 months.
Just sayin …..
Just to clarify the record, Steve, turnout was 13%.
1065 ballots cast out of 8125 registered voters.
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/DeKalb/45912/115518/en/reports.html#
Go to Reports and the summary.zip file.
Thanks for the correction. Still way too low, IMO.
This is the perpetual problem with special elections. With nothing else on the ballot, turnout us always poor. The question is really whether they should be held at all? Could we have waited until November, or would that be too long for those of us in the district to go without representation?
Or we could have used Survey Monkey for an interim rep who could have then run for real in November.
This election was a measure of who both pays attention and is willing to spend 3.5 minutes parking and voting, since that’s all the time it took. Evidently only 13% of the northside registered voters!