UPDATE: With six percent of the precincts counted, Fani Willis has a slight lead over her former boss, six-term incumbent Paul Howard. Willis has 42 percent of the vote compared to 36 percent for Howard. Christian Wise Smith has 21 percent of the 20,396 votes counted.
For the past 19 years, Election Day has been just another date on Paul Howard’s calendar.
The six-time incumbent hasn’t sweated an election since 2000, when he narrowly defeated Republican John Turner. Since then, he’s run unopposed.
RELATED: Fulton D.A. Paul Howard seeks seventh term amid controversy
His bid for a seventh term could end tonight as he faces off against two former employees in the Democratic primary. Fani Willis, his onetime chief deputy prosecutor, has raised significantly more money while relentlessly attacking Howard’s management style and integrity.
Meanwhile, Christian Wise Smith, another former Fulton prosecutor, has struck a chord with the party’s more progressive voters, vowing a dramatic transformation of the office.
Howard -- facing three civil lawsuits alleging harassment or gender discrimination and a GBI investigation over use of a nonprofit to supplement is salary -- came out swinging Friday a candidate’s forum. He accused Willis of promising not to prosecute any cops in exchange for the Atlanta Police Union’s endorsement and repeatedly questioned her party affiliation.
After the debate, a flier appeared featuring photos of Willis, two-time mayoral candidate Mary Norwood, now chairwoman of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods, and President Donald Trump in which the D.A. hopeful is labeled as a Republican. It states, “Don’t Let Them Lynch
Paul Howard.”
MORE COVERAGE: Pointed barbs, questionable accusations mark final D.A. forum
“I’ve never picked up a Republican ballot in my life,” said Willis, who has vowed to end the high turnover in the D.A.’s office. “He has no problem lying.”
Howard disavowed the flier, writing in a Facebook post that lynching “should never be used lightly.”
“Its use yesterday by unnamed cowards is offensive to me, as I am sure it is offensive to others,” he wrote. “My name is Paul Howard. I am the Fulton County District Attorney, and I did not write or approve that flyer.”
Howard courted more controversy last week when he charged six Atlanta police officers involved in the violent arrest of two college students during protests downtown. APD chief Erika Shields called the move "a tsunami of political jockeying during an election year."
It’s possible the race won’t be decided tonight. If none of the candidates receive more than 50 percent of the vote a runoff will be held Aug. 11 featuring the top two vote-getters.
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