At first glance the color-coded results map for the race between incumbent Republican Sheriff Neil Warren, and Sheriff-elect Craig Owens doesn’t look much different from other countywide races, where Democrats dominated.

But the margin of victory for Owens, a major in the Cobb County Police Department and the commander of Precinct 2, was wider than for any countywide office.

Owens received 213,143 votes (or 55.24 percent of the total) to 172,706 votes for Warren (44.76 percent of the total).

Let’s take a look at a screenshot of the map showing the countywide distribution of Owens-majority precincts (coded in green) versus Warren-majority precincts (coded in dark blue).

You can view the interactive version of the map above by following this link.

As you can see it looks similar to the map of the chairmanship race for the Cobb County Board of Commissioners.

Support for Owens ranged from Smyrna and Marietta southward, (with the exception of the Vinings 04 precinct to the lower right of the map), plus a corridor running up Cobb Parkway through Kennesaw and Acworth.

Support for Warren was concentrated in East Cobb and northwest Cobb, with a scattering of precincts in the Big Shanty/Bells Ferry area, and of course Vining 04, the one exception to Democratic dominance in the southern portion of the county.

A notable thing about the opposition to Warren is the margins by which he lost the precincts in which he was unpopular.

In addition to the general Democratic nature of the county at this point, the deaths in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and Warren’s involvement in culture war issues like his criticisms of the KSU cheerleaders who took the knee in protest of the death of Black people at the hands of police, took its toll on his numbers in Democratic-leaning precincts, particularly precincts with large Black majorities.

There are several ways of comparing two numbers and coming up with a percentage to indicate the difference, but the simplest and most intuitive one to use in elections is margin of victory, where you subtract the percentage of the total number of votes one candidate won from the percentage of votes the other candidate won. Programming it looks like this:

|(Candidate A votes / Total votes) * 100) – (Candidate B Votes / Total Votes) * 100))|

Put more simply, if Candidate A got 49 percent of the vote, and candidate B got 51 percent, the margin of victory would be 2 percent.

There were 16 precincts where the margin of victory was greater than 50 percent, and all of them were won by Owens.

Two South Cobb precincts gave Owens a whopping 87 percent (Bryant 01) and 84 percent (Bryant 02) margin of victory.

The closest Warren came to winning a precinct with a 50 percent margin was Mars Hill 01 in the northwest corner of the county, where he won with a 47 percent margin of victory. But most other Warren wins were much narrower.

So in precincts where Warren was unpopular, he was intensely unpopular.

Here are the precinct-by-precinct breakdowns. You can view a map of any of the precincts by clicking on the link on the name.

Precinct	Owens	Warren	Winner in Precinct	Margin of Victory in each precinct
Acworth 1A	1996	1923	Owens	1.86
Acworth 1B	1649	1935	Warren	7.98
Acworth 1C	2204	1203	Owens	29.38
Addison 01	960	961	Warren	0.05
Austell 1A	2654	606	Owens	62.82
Bells Ferry 02	1071	1172	Warren	4.50
Bells Ferry 03	839	809	Owens	1.82
Bells Ferry 04	1178	1474	Warren	11.16
Big Shanty 01	734	847	Warren	7.15
Big Shanty 02	1147	1291	Warren	5.91
Baker 01	1954	1342	Owens	18.57
Birney 01	1133	647	Owens	27.30
Birney 02	1904	974	Owens	32.31
Bryant 01	1373	95	Owens	87.06
Bryant 02	2818	229	Owens	84.97
Blackwell 01	1070	950	Owens	5.94
Chattahoochee 01	2795	1035	Owens	45.95
Cheatham Hill 02	998	1475	Warren	19.29
Cheatham Hill 03	1592	1668	Warren	2.33
Chalker 01	2417	1381	Owens	27.28
Clarkdale 01	764	474	Owens	23.42
Clarkdale 02	2590	1002	Owens	44.21
Cooper 01	2618	651	Owens	60.17
Chestnut Ridge 01	1056	1580	Warren	19.88
Dickerson 01	1035	1295	Warren	11.16
Dobbins 01	1035	353	Owens	49.14
Dobbins 02	1744	654	Owens	45.45
Dowell 01	1328	1149	Owens	7.23
Dodgen 01	729	1000	Warren	15.67
Durham 01	1090	2361	Warren	36.83
Davis 01	775	897	Warren	7.30
Eastside 01	1050	1451	Warren	16.03
Eastside 02	1431	1875	Warren	13.43
Elizabeth 01	1690	744	Owens	38.87
Elizabeth 02	825	1029	Warren	11.00
Elizabeth 03	970	1249	Warren	12.57
Elizabeth 04	1257	761	Owens	24.58
Elizabeth 05	1056	1185	Warren	5.76
East Piedmont 01	1058	791	Owens	14.44
Fair Oaks 02	2549	923	Owens	46.83
Fair Oaks 04	1825	827	Owens	37.63
Fullers Park 01	1273	1509	Warren	8.48
Ford 01	801	1723	Warren	36.53
Frey 01	692	1312	Warren	30.94
Garrison Mill 01	1018	1285	Warren	11.59
Gritters 01	1338	1613	Warren	9.32
Harmony-Leland 01	3779	706	Owens	68.52
Harrison 01	803	1688	Warren	35.53
Hightower 01	1465	2016	Warren	15.83
Hayes 01	1142	2065	Warren	28.78
Kennesaw 1A	884	749	Owens	8.27
Kennesaw 2A	1346	1342	Owens	0.15
Kennesaw 3A	2631	1601	Owens	24.34
Kennesaw 4A	1367	1287	Owens	3.01
Kennesaw 5A	2384	2009	Owens	8.54
Kell 01	660	885	Warren	14.56
Kemp 01	525	1049	Warren	33.29
Kemp 02	1392	1788	Warren	12.45
Kemp 03	977	2223	Warren	38.94
Lassiter 01	1209	1750	Warren	18.28
Lindley 01	2871	837	Owens	54.85
Lost Mountain 01	1241	1724	Warren	16.29
Lost Mountain 02	1156	2348	Warren	34.02
Lost Mountain 03	1657	2668	Warren	23.38
Lost Mountain 04	771	1329	Warren	26.57
Mableton 01	2505	1010	Owens	42.53
Mableton 02	1405	520	Owens	45.97
Mableton 03	1233	901	Owens	15.56
Mableton 04	678	583	Owens	7.53
Mabry 01	477	893	Warren	30.36
Macland 01	2177	750	Owens	48.75
Murdock 01	1458	1846	Warren	11.74
McEachern 01	1611	1038	Owens	21.63
McCleskey 01	598	825	Warren	15.95
McClure 01	950	1632	Warren	26.41
Marietta 1A	1619	722	Owens	38.32
Marietta 2A	722	998	Warren	16.05
Marietta 2B	1872	1201	Owens	21.84
Marietta 3A	1703	1491	Owens	6.64
Marietta 3B	1123	225	Owens	66.62
Marietta 4A	551	1114	Warren	33.81
Marietta 4B	778	742	Owens	2.37
Marietta 4C	898	1355	Warren	20.28
Marietta 5A	1444	614	Owens	40.33
Marietta 5B	1232	395	Owens	51.44
Marietta 6A	1166	380	Owens	50.84
Marietta 6B	1217	1041	Owens	7.79
Marietta 7A	1446	366	Owens	59.60
Mars Hill 01	715	2007	Warren	47.47
Mars Hill 02	940	1140	Warren	9.62
Mt Bethel 01	1408	1967	Warren	16.56
Mt Bethel 03	1151	1448	Warren	11.43
Mt Bethel 04	976	1421	Warren	18.56
North Cobb 01	872	790	Owens	4.93
Nickajack 01	2614	848	Owens	51.01
Norton Park 01	1913	1215	Owens	22.31
Nicholson 01	815	1001	Warren	10.24
Oakdale 01	1775	1251	Owens	17.32
Oregon 01	542	795	Warren	18.92
Oregon 02	2817	980	Owens	48.38
Oregon 03	2269	846	Owens	45.68
Oregon 04	2297	899	Owens	43.74
Oregon 05	1802	1243	Owens	18.36
Pebblebrook 01	2686	585	Owens	64.23
Powers Ferry 01	1250	1245	Owens	0.20
Pine Mountain 01	979	1839	Warren	30.52
Pine Mountain 02	771	1830	Warren	40.72
Post Oak 01	1141	1779	Warren	21.85
Pope 01	1102	1417	Warren	12.50
Palmer 01	875	1128	Warren	12.63
Powders Springs 1A	2580	994	Owens	44.38
Powders Springs 2A	1814	445	Owens	60.60
Powders Springs 3A	1985	709	Owens	47.36
Pitner 01	929	1159	Warren	11.02
Rocky Mount 01	1142	1497	Warren	13.45
Riverside 01	1000	107	Owens	80.67
Roswell 01	1888	2603	Warren	15.92
Roswell 02	1351	1691	Warren	11.18
Sandy Plains 01	1128	1180	Warren	2.25
Shallowford Falls 01	1177	1609	Warren	15.51
Simpson 01	661	805	Warren	9.82
Sewell Mill 01	1336	1438	Warren	3.68
Sewell Mill 03	1769	1318	Owens	14.61
Smyrna 1A	1883	579	Owens	52.97
Smyrna 2A	2725	911	Owens	49.89
Smyrna 3A	2088	1058	Owens	32.74
Smyrna 3B	1107	804	Owens	15.86
Smyrna 4A	2598	2066	Owens	11.41
Smyrna 5A	1927	893	Owens	36.67
Smyrna 6A	2618	1912	Owens	15.58
Smyrna 7A	3596	1540	Owens	40.03
Sope Creek 01	748	1064	Warren	17.44
Sope Creek 02	1746	1845	Warren	2.76
Sope Creek 03	959	1294	Warren	14.87
Sweetwater 01	1436	856	Owens	25.31
Sweetwater 02	1508	435	Owens	55.22
Terrell Mill 01	2393	1100	Owens	37.02
Timber Ridge 01	870	1146	Warren	13.69
Vaughan 01	847	1679	Warren	32.94
Vinings 01	1525	765	Owens	33.19
Vinings 02	2818	1556	Owens	28.85
Vinings 03	2077	1130	Owens	29.53
Vinings 04	1189	1433	Warren	9.31
Wade Green 02	1849	1626	Owens	6.42
Willeo 01	960	1369	Warren	17.56
Total:	213143	172706