By Mark Woolsey

The State Senate District 35 special runoff election is in the books. The Cobb County Board of Elections and Voter Registration voted to certify the result of the Dec. 16 runoff on Monday, joining Fulton.

The certification vote confirmed that Former Cobb County School Board of Education member and pediatric dentist Jaha Howard topped former State Rep. Roger Bruce. Final unofficial results in the district had Howard garnering 3,229 votes, or 51.90 percent of all ballots cast, while Bruce managed  2,993, 48.10 percent.

The district encompasses portions of both Cobb and Fulton counties.

Cobb County Interim Elections Director Michael D’Itri reported at Monday’s meeting that 3,796 Cobb votes were tallied, equating to a 5.3 percent turnout of registered voters.

“Considering the voter exhaustion and everything we’ve been dealing with for people still to come out, it’s a good thing, “ D’Itri said.

Howard captured a majority of votes in Cobb County. By contrast Bruce polled the majority in the Fulton portion of the runoff with 2,437 votes cast there.

Howard and Bruce were the two top vote getters among a half-dozen candidates in the November election but neither won a majority, necessitating the Dec. 16 runoff.

The seat became open when former District 35 State Sen. Jason Esteves stepped down to run for governor.