By Mark Woolsey

The Cobb County Commission District 2 and District 4 special election is officially in the books.

The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration voted on Monday to certify the results of the April 29 vote, in which District 4 incumbent Republican Monique Sheffield defeated Republican Matthew Hardwick.

Democrat Erick Allen beat Republican Alicia Adams to move into the District 2 slot, which was declared vacant earlier this year as the culmination of a lengthy court battle involving now-former commissioner Jerica Richardson. The dispute involved whether a local ”home rule” configuration of the districts approved by the commission should prevail, with a judge ruling last year that the Democratic-controlled County commission’s use of home rule powers to draw the commission district map was unconstitutional.

With the resultant reversion to a state-legislatively drawn map, new elections were necessary in both Districts 2 and 4.

Elections Director Tate Fall ran through the voting numbers just prior to the board’s certification vote on Monday. She detailed that 10,066 voters cast ballots on election day, with Republicans tallying 4,293 and Democrats chalking up 5,769. In addition, 6,217 advance votes were cast, 163 absentee ballots arrived by mail, and provisional ballots amounted to 22.

The total number of ballots cast in the races was 16,468, and the turnout was 6.85% of registered voters.

Fall did not report any election-day glitches.

Also Monday, Allen was sworn in to the District 2 commission seat, filling the months-long gap in representation. Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy administered the oath of office just minutes after the election results were certified. Allen’s official public swearing-in ceremony was held at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre in Marietta.