Talley wins MWA seat; turnout for Macon runoff down from primary

In Tuesday’s runoff election that featured some key statewide primary races, Marshall Talley defeated Ron Lemon for the District 2 seat on the Macon Water Authority board in the lone Macon race on the ballot.

Talley won by 299 votes, earning 1,603 against Lemon’s 1,304. Turnout for the District 2 race was about 11.7%, as 3,030 Maconites in that district cast their votes.

The turnout for that race was cut in half from May 19, when 6,480 people voted in the initial election that also featured candidates Sharif Robbins-Brinson and Renoalda Scott.

That trend was reflected across the county as well, as 15,194 people in Macon-Bibb County voted. That’s good for a 14.09% turnout — much lower than the 29,000 ballots cast in the initial primary May 19 for a turnout above 27%. That ballot had several other local races that would not need runoffs, including other Macon Water Authority positions and spots on the Bibb County school board.

Talley’s victory comes on his fourth run for a Macon Water Authority board seat since 2018. He told The Melody earlier this year that he wanted to “reimagine” the Macon Water Alliance, the authority’s nonprofit arm created in 2014 to help individuals in need pay their water bills.

“I think the water alliance could do a lot to help our community,” Talley said in April, adding he wants to “restructure billing assistance” offered by the alliance and help ratepayers with leak repairs. “I really want to deep dive into that nonprofit side.”

In the race that got the most attention statewide, Rick Jackson defeated Burt Jones for the Republican nomination for governor, though Bibb County voters favored Jones by more than 1,000 votes. 

Bibb County voters also went against the state’s overall numbers on the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. John F. Kennedy won Macon-Bibb by more than 2,500 votes but lost the state to Greg Dolezal. Kennedy is a Mercer alum who previously represented District 18 in the state Senate, which consists of parts of Bibb County as well as Monroe, Crawford, Peach and Upson counties.

As far as turnout for each party, Republicans this time outvoted Democrats in Macon, a flip from the May 19 election. Republicans cast about 8,200 ballots — a 7.6% turnout — compared to just under 7,000 ballots cast by Democrats, a 6.44% turnout. 

As of Tuesday night, there were 13 questionable ballots that needed to be checked before the election was certified, according to an employee at the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections. Macon’s election results because of the Juneteenth holiday on Friday.