Republican Mary Norwood leading by small Margin with South largely not reporting yet.
My counts have Norwood winning about 86% of the Northern precincts with Reed taking 81% of the South. Turnout in South and North will be key as is the share of the vote Reed can get in Midtown, VaHi, Inman Park, L5p, etc.
Will this be the first race where a Democrat loses because of their lackluster support of gay rights? Will gays be the deciding margin?
Discuss amongst yourselves, this should be a nail biter.
Update 1: 11aliveNews claims to be tracking results independently and has an interactive map of precinct by precinct results.
as of 9:32 11 Alive claims 68% in with Norwood winning 53/47
City of Atlanta is saying only 20% of the vote is in with Reed winning 55/45
Either way, its still up for grabs.
Update 2 9:38: 11Alive says "70% of precincts reporting in #atlmayor runoff. Norwood 52%, Reed 48%"
AJC saying 32% reporting with Reed up 55/45
Also according to AJC Ceaser Mitchell handily beating Clair Muller, Aaron Watson ahead of Amir Farokhi 56/44 with 32% in and Alex Wan beating Liz Coyle 55/45 with 26% reporting.
Except for City council Pres, all close races.
Update 3. An aside: Is Mary Norwood a Republican? A big issue in this race has been what exactly is the party affiliation of Mary Norwood. Many of my gay and lesbian friends do not want to admit that she (and Alex Wan) are republicans because of her strong support for marriage equality, and because they hate to think of themselves as voting for a Republican, but you have to face the reality.
As I say in the thread below, Norwood was a Georgia delegate to the state Republican convention in 1999, she has voted in more Republican primaries than Democratic ones, when asked if she voted for George Bush she said "I can't remember", her base of support comes from heavily Republican Buckhead, and her closing campaign message was cutting property taxes and eliminating government waste. That sounds like a Republican to me.
Even if you grant her the fiction that she is not personally a Republican anymore, if elected she will owe her election to the Republicans who are backing her at something like a 9 to 1 ratio.
Update 4, 10:15 pm: In the battle of who will rule local coverage, the AJC is reporting 53/47 for Reed with 57% reporting. After screaming to a lead in precincts reporting, 11Alive has been stuck at just over 70% reporting (now 74%) for about the last 45 minutes. They have Norwood leading 52/48.
Two thoughts on these results. One the massive slowdown in 11Alive results makes me wonder if their numbers aren't skewed north, i.e. pro-Norwood.
Thought 2, the AJC royally screwed up the district 6 city council race by failing to count three Dekalb precincts in their totals. Will this make them more or less accurate this time around? We'll see.
Update 5 10:24 pm: So glad I posted that last one because it makes me look smart and who doesn't like that? 11Alive goes from 74% reporting to 75% reporting, but there vote share goes from 52/48 Norwood to 50/50 tie?
How is that possible?
Is it time to start calling this for Reed? Maybe not quite yet.
Update 6 10:42 (?): Its getting into more definitive calling it for Reed territory. AJC has it 52/48 Reed with 81% in. Its looking more and more likely that 11Alive f*cked up. They are still stuck at 76% in with the South precincts still out and things 50/50. I'm chicken to be the first to call it for Reed, but its looking good for him.
Update 7 10:50: Ok, at 10:50 I made the official dbratl twitter call for Reed. AJC now has it at 91% in with it 51/49. Makes me a little nervous but I'm sticking with the call.
Update 8 10:59: AJC is now calling it for Reed with 100% reporting, winning 50.75 to 49.25.
Update 9 11:34 pm: Ok, so the results are bouncing around like crazy and the Margin is 758 votes with provisional ballots to be counted tomorrow. Fulton county says they are done counting it for the night so I am done too. I would love my call to stand, but obviously with a 758 margin this is anyone's race. Razor tight, and I think whatever the outcome a recount will be required by law.
Good night.