Republican Devan Seabaugh and Democrat Priscilla Smith were the top vote-getters in the race to fill the seat vacated by Republican Bert Reeves in Georgia House District 34.

In Georgia special elections, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff, regardless of what political party they are in, which means it would be possible for members of the same party to face each other in a runoff. In this runoff, though, the race will be between a Democrat and a Republican.

The runoff election to fill the seat will take place on Tuesday July 13, 2021.

The results are unofficial, pending the processing of valid provisional ballots, cured ballots and any military and overseas ballots received by Friday June 18 at 5 p.m., and the certification by the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration at their meeting on Monday June 21 at 3 p.m.

With the unofficial count in, Seabaugh received 47.09 percent of the votes with 3,337 votes, Smith netted 24.46 percent with 1,740 votes.

Republican David Blinkhorn, who resigned his seat on the Kennesaw City Council to run for the seat, received 839 votes for 11.84 percent of the vote, Democrat Sam Hensley, Jr. netted 15.75 percent of the vote with 1,116 votes, and Libertarian Chris Neill received 54 votes for 0.76 percent of the total.

Recent election history of HD-34

Albert T. “Bert” Reeves entered the Georgia House of Representatives as a Republican after defeating another Republican, incumbent Charles Gregory, in the 2014 GOP primary. Gregory himself came into the office after beating a Republican incumbent in the 2012 election. Neither Reeves nor Gregory had Democratic opposition in their first general election races.

Reeves is an attorney and was a former Assistant District Attorney (ADA).

He resigned the HD-34 seat to take a job as Vice President for Institute Relations at his alma mater, Georgia Tech.