Voters in Cobb County Commission District 3, which covers most of East Cobb, head to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 3, with Republican incumbent JoAnn K. Birrell seeking a fifth term against Democratic challenger Kevin Redmon.

The seat carries a four-year term, according to Cobb County elections records.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot, according to Cobb County Elections & Registration. Voters must go to their assigned Election Day polling location. Georgia's My Voter Page can confirm assignments.

What's at stake

Democrats hold a 3-2 majority on the five-member commission. A Redmon victory would expand that advantage to 4-1, East Cobb News reported in an Oct. 24 candidate profile. All three seats held by Democrats are up in 2028, when nonpartisan elections will begin, according to that profile.

Fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill, who represents District 1, is running unopposed in November after winning her May primary with 71.7 percent of the vote, according to The Ballot Brief.

The candidates

Birrell is a four-term commissioner and 30-year Cobb County resident active with Keep Cobb Beautiful and the Cobb Veterans Memorial Foundation, according to The Ballot Brief. She won the May Republican primary over Chris Wasserman with 72.2 percent of the vote, the Cobb County Courier reported.

She has described herself as a fiscal conservative who has never voted for a millage rate increase in 16 years, East Cobb News reported. Birrell has said her top priorities include better pay and retention for public safety personnel, completing a Cobb Veterans Memorial and seeing through SPLOST and Georgia Department of Transportation projects in the district.

Redmon, a Democrat, was unopposed in his party's primary, according to the Cobb County Courier. Fox 5 Atlanta described him as working in software sales. The Ballot Brief described him as a client executive with 30 years in business and a 21-year East Cobb resident. He served as cabinet lead for former Commissioner Jerica Richardson's Community Cabinet, according to his campaign website. Redmon listed affordability, public safety and community engagement as priorities.

Record early turnout

More than 40 percent of Cobb's registered voters, nearly 235,000 people, had cast ballots through early in-person voting and returned absentee ballots, according to East Cobb News' Oct. 31 turnout report. Those preliminary figures represented a county midterm record.

Some absentee-by-mail voters experienced delivery delays traced to the county's vendor, Fort Orange Press. Fox 5 Atlanta reported that Cobb election officials overnighted replacement ballots to affected voters. Completed domestic absentee ballots must reach the elections office before polls close at 7 p.m. Nov. 3.

Also on the ballot

Cobb voters will also decide a one-percent sales tax extension, the 2028 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax), worth about $1.15 billion, according to The Ballot Brief. That package includes a proposed $20 million relocation of the East Cobb Library, which Birrell has championed, East Cobb News reported.

Results and certification

Unofficial results will be available after polls close on election night, according to Cobb County Elections & Registration. The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration is scheduled to certify results at its Monday, Nov. 9, meeting at 3 p.m., which will be available on the CobbTV YouTube channel.