MACON, Ga. — After months of campaigning, voters entrusted incumbent Bibb County Sheriff David Davis with another term, coming off a challenging term for Davis that included four inmates escaping from the Bibb County jail back in October.
Since there are no republican challengers, David Davis will be the next sheriff of Macon-Bibb County and will lead the department for the next four years.
Here’s how Macon-Bibb County residents voted:
David Davis: 61%, (8,815)
DeAndre Hall: 17%, (2,456)
Chris Paterson: 12%, (1,751)
Chris Paul: 10%, (1,391)
Davis says he owes his success to the voters.
"I really appreciate the voters for returning me to office against three opponents. So, I'm very encouraged, I'm very grateful and very pleased by having this opportunity to serve for four more years," he said.
He says he looks forward to hitting the ground running Wednesday morning.
Davis also said some of his opponents had great ideas and he's hoping to use some of those during his term. He said people obviously resonated with those candidates so he wants to listen to what the people want.
"I serve all the people and I serve all of the community no matter whether they voted for me in this election or not. I look forward to working with them no matter the challenges we may face," Davis said.
He says in the next term he wants to focus on technology upgrades, improvements to the Bibb County Jail, the Sheriff's Office youth programs, staffing and pay for current deputies.
Davis has had some challenges during his term but he says true leadership is about how you face challenges and then overcome them.
"Certainly we've had challenges. We had staffing challenges, we had the jail escape, we had other things that happened in our community, crime rate things but it's how everyone at the Sheriff's Office and community came together to address those challenges and make us stronger because of it," Davis said.
Two candidates hoping to be on the ballot — Marshall Hughes and Ron Rodgers — were disqualified in a 3-2 vote after the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections found they failed to get fingerprinted by the statutory deadline. That is an additional requirement for sheriff that other offices in Georgia don’t have.
But after the candidates appealed the board’s decision to Bibb County Superior Court, retired Houston County Judge George Nunn did not see any obvious error for him to reverse. Because of that, he upheld the Macon-Bibb Board of Elections decision to disqualify both Hughes and Rodgers.
As the vote tallies stream in, we are following races across Central Georgia, ranging from sheriffs’ races to commission seats to the race for mayor of Macon-Bibb County. You can see more of our live coverage here. You can also see all the races we’re tracking here.