Cooke, Foster to face off for District 5 Macon-Bibb Commission seat 

Andrea Cooke and Edward Foster will head to a runoff in April for a seat on the Macon-Bibb County Board of Commissioners after the special election to fill the District 5 seat concluded Tuesday. 

Of the 12,734 registered voters in the district, according to the election summary report, a total of 1,058 people cast their vote, yielding a turnout of 8.3%.  A majority of voters cast ballots on Election Day. 

Cooke came up short of winning the general election by less than 10 votes, receiving less than the 50% margin — she finished with 523 votes for 49.53% — needed to declare victory and avoid a runoff election. Foster garnered 205 votes (19.41%). 

Stephanie Stephens-Lanham earned 154 votes (14.58%). Ulisha Hill, Landon Justice and Chester Gibbs received fewer than 10% of votes each. 

The election will be certified Friday, officials said, though there are still provisional ballots that could be counted if a voter’s eligibility is confirmed. 

Elections officials said they do not know how many provisional ballots were filled out.

The winner of the runoff race will replace  former mayor pro-tem Seth Clark, who left the post in January to run for lieutenant governor. Clark suspended his campaign at the end of February. 

District 5 includes parts of the Vineville, Ingleside, Pleasant Hill, Napier Heights and Unionville neighborhoods.

Foster, the vice president of the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood Association, waited inside the elections office at the Macon Mall to find out  if he would need to keep campaigning for a runoff. 

Foster said throughout his campaign he’s found that many people don’t even know an election is happening. He plans to continue campaigning across District 5.