Atlanta voters choose mayor in potentially historic election
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atlanta mayoral contenders Keisha Lance Bottoms, left, speaks as Mary Norwood listens at the WSB live debate in Atlanta.
ATLANTA >> Atlanta residents are heading to the polls in what could be a historic mayoral election.
Voters in Tuesday’s runoff for Atlanta mayor are deciding between Mary Norwood and Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Further reading:
• Voters choose a mayor as Atlanta confronts prosperity, peril
If Norwood wins, Atlanta would have its first-ever white female mayor.
If Bottoms wins, it would continue what has been called the city’s black political machine, which has dominated the mayor’s office since the mid-1970s.
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Atlanta’s last white mayor, Sam Massell, left office in 1974 and was succeeded by five African-American mayors in the next four decades: Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young, Bill Campbell, Shirley Franklin and current Mayor Kasim Reed.
Regardless of who wins Tuesday’s runoff, Atlanta will have its first female mayor since 2010, when former mayor Franklin left office.
Polls will be open until 8 p.m. EST.
