Shawn Sanders and William Tompkins won Waycross City Commission seats last week after collecting the most votes in their runoff elections.
Sanders defeated incumbent Katrena Felder for the District 3 post, 10762. Tompkins topped Tim Peacock for the District 4 seat, 100-61.
A total of 331 of 3,493 eligible voters (9.48 percent) in the two districts cast ballots during early voting November 24-26 and on election day, December 2.
The Ware County Board of Elections and Registration conducted a voluntary post-election audit after the runoffs, and the results fully conf irmed the accuracy of the official vote totals, Election Supervisor Carlos Nelson said.
Sanders
Tompkins
The District 3 seat was part of the commission’s normal four-year voting cycle while the voting for District 4 was a special election to fill the seat formerly held by Diane Hopkins, who died January 29 early in the second year of her term.
Since the District 4 seat is vacant, Tompkins will be sworn in and participate in the commission’s final scheduled planning and information session and bi-monthly meeting of the year Monday-Tuesday, December 15-16.
Sanders takes the District 3 post beginning with the commission’s first 2026 meeting.
Both Sanders and Tompkins emerged from the Municipal Election November as leaders in their district races, but fell short of the 50 percent, plus one needed to win the seat without a runoff.
Sanders totaled 123 votes (46.42 percent) to 85 for Felder and 54 for King Goree. Tompkins led in the race for the other district post with 155 votes (45.06 percent) to 132 for Peacock. Linda Slaughter-Titus was third with 55.
There also will be a third new commissioner on the five-person panel in January.
William Simmons will represent District 2 after winning a three-candidate race that included Ayana Moore and Barry Worley.
The new trio joins Shawn Roberts of District 1 and Alvin Nelson of District 5.
The audit was completed by elections staff using the same procedures required for statewide elections. Ballots were hand-counted and compared against totals recorded in the Elections Management System (EMS).
The audited results exactly matched the EMS figures.
Audit documentation has been completed and retained as part of the official election record.
