An Atlanta city council race that is going to a runoff is too close to know who the final two candidates will be.
Former Atlanta school board member Byron Amos is the lead vote-getter after Tuesday’s special election, but businessman Antonio Brown and Greg Clay, founder of the Atlanta Speaks Initiative, are separated by just three votes. Fulton County director of registration and elections Richard Barron said Wednesday he expected to certify the election before the end of the week.
Clay, who is currently in third place, said he expected to request a recount in the race. Barron said he wanted that count to be completed by Monday.
Clay is able to request the recount because he is within 1 percent of the second-place finisher, but he cannot do so until the election has been certified.
Barron said six provisional ballots were cast, but four were rejected because the voters were not registered to vote or because they were not eligible to vote in the district. Four mail-in ballots were rejected because the voters did not sign the outside of the envelope.
The election is to fill the remainder of Councilman Ivory Lee Young, Jr.'s term, which expires in 2021. Young died in November.
The district, which sits next to Mercedes Benz-Stadium in downtown Atlanta, is undergoing rapid redevelopment — including the westside expansion of the Atlanta Beltline. But it also includes two of the city’s poorest communities, English Avenue and Vine City.
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