These two Macon mayoral candidates will face off in an August runoff election

With thousands of absentee ballots left to be counted, two Macon-Bibb County mayoral candidates appear to be heading to a runoff election.

Lester Miller and Cliffard Whitby are the leading candidates in the race with early voting ballots, in person ballots and some absentee ballots reported. Roughly 8,000 absentee ballots still need to be counted as of deadline Wednesday afternoon.

Miller received the most votes, with 16,511 (42.9%), followed by Whitby with 10,456 (27.2%). Since no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, Miller and Whitby will compete in a runoff election on Aug. 11.

Here are the results for each candidate:

• Miller: 16,511 votes

• Whitby: 10,456 votes

• Sullivan: 5,222 votes

• Schlesinger: 4,552 votes

• Whitfield: 1,773 votes

The county has tallied early voting ballots, in person ballots and some absentee ballots. The vote tallies are unofficial.

When Miller found out he was in the lead of the race in the initial results, he said it’s hard to explain how he felt.

“I think we are about where we expected to be according to our initial campaign polling. We’re pleased to be leading right now. Of course, we want to make sure all of the additional ballots get counted and everybody’s voice has been heard. I think that’s important,” he said.

His campaign will wait for the final results of the election before making further plans in his campaign, but he said he is happy they have received votes from every precinct in the county, according to his campaign’s analysis.

“We were not surprised by the results, but we’re pleased, as we’re dissecting the numbers now, to know that we’ve got a great cross section of the community represented in our votes. I think that distinguishes us from everybody else in the race,” Miller said. “We’re going to continue to run a positive campaign no matter who’s in the runoff.”

Cliffard Whitby released a statement Wednesday evening saying, “I cannot think of speaking about last night’s outcome without thinking of how grateful I am for my supporters, the Macon-Bibb voters who supported me with their vote, my campaign team and most of all my family. Regardless of the results I stand by what my campaign was based on equity, fair play and opportunity and my hopes for my hometown being inclusive.

“I remain optimistic about the election results along with the rest of Macon-Bibb, I eagerly await confirmation of the election’s next results to be shared. My team remains ready to protect the vote and is in close contact with the Bibb Board of Elections as they tabulate nearly 10,000 absentee ballots as they shared with us on Wednesday.”

The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections office had received 16,817 absentee ballots and 5,906 early voting ballots, and the county has a total of 106,057 registered voters in active status, according to the election office.

Mike Kaplan, the chairperson of the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections, said Tuesday that the Board of Elections had counted 625 bundles of 25 absentee ballots at around 7 p.m., and 623 of the bundles had at least one ballot that had an error. All of those ballots, more than 16,000, will have to be counted again by election officials.

Miller received the most campaign contributions overall throughout his campaign, but Whitby received the most in the last reporting period that ended April 30, according to a Telegraph article.

Some polling precincts in Macon had problems getting started Tuesday morning, Kaplan said.

The issues were a result of having to train new poll workers virtually during the COVID-19 outbreak, Kaplan said. Some of the poll workers who were trained before the outbreak could not participate on Election Day due to health concerns with the new coronavirus, he said.

“It was rough this morning, … but we’ll have it down for November,” Kaplan said.

Macon-Bibb County residents also voted for commissioner seats on Tuesday. The unofficial results were released for six districts around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, and those results have higher vote counts than the Georgia Secretary of State’s result website because the Secretary of State’s page is not showing any absentee or early voting numbers.

Here are the unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s website for Macon-Bibb County Commissioner seats. All votes have to be finalized by Friday.

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 1

• Valerie Wynn: 3,294 votes

• John M. Adams Jr.: 1,456 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 2

• Paul Bronson: 1,774

• Weston Stroud: 1,096

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 3

• Elaine Lucas: 3,512

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 4

• Mallory C. Jones III: 3,671 votes
• George Thomas: 1,272 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 5

• Seth Clark: 1,619 votes

• Carlton Kitchens: 1,261 votes

• Erion Smith: 999 votes

• Louie Hargrove: 226 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 6

• Raymond Wilder: 2,322

• Robert Abbott: 1,236

• Donald L. Druitt Sr.: 574

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 7

• Bill Howell: 2,088 votes

• Bonnie H. Thompson: 1,292 votes

• Tim Rivers: 860 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 8

• Virgil Watkins Jr.: 1,805 votes

• Stacy R. Jenkins: 521 votes
• Michelle Parks: 364 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 9

• Al “Tiger” Tillman: 2,268 votes
• Brendalyn Bailey: 1,151 votes

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 1:24 AM.