The front-runner from the first vote, former Cobb County prosecutor Debra Bernes finally emerged victorious Tuesday in the tortuous race to fill a vacant seat on the state Court of Appeals.
In unofficial returns, Bernes had 126,005 votes — or 54 percent — with 97 percent of the precincts counted, compared to 107,393 (46 percent) for Howard Mead in the only statewide contest in the runoff election that had light turnout.
Bernes beat Mead in Floyd County, 1,473 to 1,079 with just a 6.03 percent turnout locally.
The judicial race topped a ballot that failed to inspire many voters on a day that saw steady rain throughout much of Georgia. Still, the turnout more than doubled the estimate of election officials that only about 100,000 would vote.
``We've had a really quiet day,'' said Kara Sinkule, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Cathy Cox. ``We're just hearing that it's as slow as everyone expected it to be.''
At a precinct housed in a banquet hall in midtown Atlanta, some poll workers munched on chicken dinners Tuesday afternoon while others sat almost dozing on a sofa, uninterrupted by voters.
One of the two polls there had tallied 39 votes by 2 p.m. The other had 27 — less than four an hour.
``I think we probably had more this morning than we'll have this evening,'' said Helinda Scott, manager of one of the two polls.
Bernes and Mead, a legal aide to former Govs. Zell Miller and Roy Barnes, were vying for the appeals court position in a race that has seen several twists and turns.
Bernes and Mike Sheffield, once an assistant district attorney in Gwinnett County, appeared bound for a runoff after finishing atop a six-person field in July. But Mead, who finished a close third, sued for a new election and won after nearly 500 absentee votes misidentified him as Thomas Mead.
The court decision came just one day before Bernes and Sheffield were to face off again and called for the whole election to be redone on Nov. 2.
The three lowest-ranking candidates dropped out, and in the rematch, Bernes finished first and Mead second. A runoff was required because neither gained the 45 percent of the vote needed to settle a statewide election in Georgia.
Bernes took just above 41 percent of the vote, while Mead got about 38 percent.
More than 1 million people voted in the July race and about 2.5 million voted on Nov. 2.
Debra Bernes defeated Howard Mead in Floyd County on Tuesday in a Georgia Court of Appeals runoff. Bernes topped Mead 1,473 to 1,079 and led statewide with 55 percent to Mead's 45 percent with more than 80 percent of the precincts reporting
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