Live blogging Savannah’s mayoral and aldermanic runoff

10:05 p.m.
I made a follow up post: Edna Jackson elected Savannah’s new mayor; Tom Bordeaux takes at-large council seat.

9:21 p.m.
Thanks to the handful of you who followed this post. At the end of the day, Jackson just had too much of a head start for Felser to catch her.

9:16
Well those final 8 precincts went very heavily for Jackson, who ended up winning by 2362 votes, about 500 fewer than she defeated Felser by in November. So he didn’t make up as much ground as it appeared just a few minutes ago.

9:14

9:13
Votes are in.

Congrats to Edna Jackson.

9:11 p.m.
The other four candidates in the general election for mayor got about 8500 votes. Here’s a reminder about the vote totals in November:

Given Jackson’s lead from that race, I can’t help but be impressed that Felser and his campaign are still plausibly within striking distance with 85% reporting.

9:03 p.m.
Interestingly, with those 8 precincts still unreported, 14,772 votes have been cast in the mayoral race, but only 13,840 in the at large city council race.

It’s not unusual for down ticket races to get fewer votes, but that seems a large disparity to me. Did voters simply not like either candidate? Or did they not know enough to feel comfortable voting for the final aldermanic seat?

8:57
With 7015 votes at this point, Felser has easily surpassed the 5115 he got in the general election.

Jackson got 7965 in the general election and has 7757 right now.

So, however this turns out, kudos to Felser for dramatically closing the gap of 2850 votes in November.

8:53 p.m.
With only 8 precincts left to report and Jackson with a lead of 745 votes, Felser supporters have a mere glimmer of hope here.

8:50 p.m.
And congratulations to Tom Bordeaux, who has 59.48% in the council at large position #2. That’s with 85% of precincts reporting. Bordeaux is secure.

8:48 p.m.

Congrats to Tybee’s Barry Brown, who defeated incumbent Bill Garbett 433 to 363 with both precincts reporting.

8:47 p.m.
47 of 55 precincts:
Jackson: 7757
Felser: 7015

Bordeaux: 8232
Young: 5608

8:43 p.m.
Well, I’m just sitting here. My cat Clumsy is on my lap. Cloud is lying on the printer. My dinner from Peking House has been set aside for now.

These results are obviously unofficial, but in the days of touch voting and the absence of a paper trail, preliminary data almost has to be confirmed by a “recount”.

I’ll take a moment here to congratulate both Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson on upbeat, spirited campaigns.

8:34
Btw, there’s also a runoff for a single council seat at Tybee between Barry Brown and Bill Garbett. I know nothing about that race, but I’ll add the numbers when Tybee’s two precincts begin reporting.

8:31
A note regarding turnout: if the 30% of precincts that have reported so far are representative of citywide turnout, then we’ll see total votes number close to 19,000. That’s only slightly lower than the number who voted in November.

8:26 p.m.
Btw, I don’t have any way of telling which precincts have reported at this point.

If you’re following this, you’ll need to refresh your browser from time to time.

8:24 p.m.
Given that Bordeaux got more than 40% of the vote in the three-way race for the remaining alderman-at-large seat, and given that he has a strong track record among the city’s Democratic voters, both white and black, I expect him to win relatively handily.

I’ll also note that commentators harp constantly on race as a determinant in Savannah’s voting patterns. But already we see racial disparity. Both races feature one black candidate and one white candidate. The black candidate in the mayoral race (Jackson) has 50.18% of the vote right now; the black candidate in the aldermanic race (Clinton Young) has 38.80%.

8:19 p.m.
With 17/55 precincts reporting, Jackson leads Felser by 20 votes, 2842 to 2822.

Not surprisingly, Bordeaux has opened up a big early lead over Clinton Young — 3262 to 2068.

8:10 p.m.
Hello all, I’m going to experiment with live blogging the results of today’s runoff election in Savannah. No returns yet, but the first precincts should be reporting soon.

Just a note that a Chatham County elections official earlier today predicted turnout would only be 10%, but subsequent reports for the city of Savannah put turnout at about twice that much. Turnout will be crucial, obviously.

About 33% of registered Savannahians voted in the general election in November. That’s about one-fifth of the total number of city residents of voting age.