Columbus Council District 4 runoff may be canceled as candidate withdraws, other plans to
With one candidate withdrawing and her replacement saying she will, too, Columbus may not have an Aug. 11 special election runoff for Columbus Council District 4.
The election is to fill the unexpired term of Councilor Evelyn Turner Pugh, who retired in October 2019 because of poor health. The candidates on the June 9 ballot were Valerie Thompson, who was appointed to serve District 4 until the special election, and Toyia Tucker and Elaine Gillespie.
Tucker got 2,534 votes to Thompson’s 2,030 and Gillespie’s 1,046, falling short of the 50% plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff.
On Monday, Thompson submitted a letter withdrawing from the runoff, giving no reason for that decision. With her out of the race, Gillespie automatically was in, as the next leading contender.
But Gillespie told the Ledger-Enquirer Monday afternoon that she doesn’t want to run, and like Thompson, she also will send the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration a letter withdrawing from the race.
That leaves Tucker as the sole candidate, and negates the need for a runoff that would cost around $50,000 and involve voters from five of Columbus’ 25 neighborhood voting precincts.
The next step, once Gillespie withdraws, is for the elections board to hold a meeting to certify Tucker as the winner of the June 9 election, said City Attorney Clifton Fay. The board has a meeting scheduled for early July, but may hold a called meeting before then to handle this issue, Fay said.
The result would be that Tucker replaces Thompson to serve out the rest of the District 4 term, until December.
In an odd twist, District 4 ballots on June 9 also had the regularly scheduled election for the next four-year council term starting in January. Only Tucker and Gillespie were in that race, which Tucker won outright by 3,723 votes to Gillespie’s 1,785, so Tucker already was set to take the seat next year.
The four precincts with District 4 voters are Faith Tabernacle, St. John AME Church, Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, Holsey Monumental CME Church and Canaan Baptist Church.
Early in-person runoff voting was set for July 20 through Aug. 7 at Columbus’ City Service Center off Macon Road.