BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Brunswick registered voters turned out to the polls Tuesday to elect a new mayor.
Eight people ran for the seat with Cosby Johnson and Ivan D. Figueroa qualifying for a runoff.
The election took place while the town is making international headlines with the trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Supervisor of Elections Chris Channell told First Coast News they had a 7% turnout with early voting, which is more than past municipal elections.
In all, just over 1,500 people voted in the election.
Two women who have been coming out to support the Arbery family in front of the courthouse say everything that's happened leading up to the trial has shown them the importance of local politics.
They were paying especially close attention to how candidates interacted with the Arbery family and what candidates wanted to do to stop racial inequality.
"I found out how important our local government is when it took so long for an arrest to be made," said Jo Moseley, a Brunswick voter. "Then it really matters who is in charge locally."
"It makes me think a little harder about the people that I choose on the ballot," said Titania Cook, another Brunswick voter.
These voters focused on how candidates plan to lead their city long after the trial is over.
"The community needs to come together and they're not going to do that unless they have a leader," Moseley said.
"The leaders need to step up and do what they say they're going to do," Cook said. "They need to be supportive of the community as a whole."
Channell says they've been trying for years to move voting sites out of public schools and that the school board has formally requested that. He says the hope is also that more people will vote at this new location. Channell says the precinct has the lowest percentage of voter turnout for every election and that the church is easy to walk to.