With a scant 4.8 percent turnout, Memphis voters filled in the blanks at City Hall Thursday, Nov. 19, by electing four new members to the Memphis City Council and returning an appointed incumbent.

Thursday’s winners join new council members Martavius Jones and Philip Spinosa in taking office January 1, making six new faces on the 13-member council.

Jones and Spinosa were elected to the Super District council seats in the Oct. 8 city elections. There is no runoff provision in the super district races.

Incumbent council members Bill Morrison, Joe Brown, Janis Fullilove, Kemp Conrad, Reid Hedgepeth and Edmund Ford Jr. were re-elected on the Oct. 8 ballot.

DISTRICT 5
The closest race Thursday was in council District 5, where Worth Morgan beat Dan Springer by 122 votes.
With all 20 precincts reporting the unofficial final totals were:
Morgan: 3,374
Springer: 3,252

DISTRICT 7
Incumbent council member Berlin Boyd easily defeated challenger Anthony Anderson in District 7 to claim a full four-year term on the council.
Boyd was appointed to the council earlier this year to fill the vacancy created when Lee Harris resigned to take a seat in the state Senate.
With all 18 precincts reporting the totals were:
Boyd: 1,196
Anderson: 709

DISTRICT 2
Businessman and veteran Republican leader Frank Colvett easily claimed the District 2 council seat over political newcomer Rachel Knox.
With all 19 precincts reporting the results were:
Colvett: 2,353
Knox: 833

DISTRICT 3
Former Shelby County Schools board member Patrice Robinson is the new District 3 council member, beating former Memphis Education Association president Keith Williams.
With all 17 precincts reporting the results were:
Robinson: 1,121
Williams: 783

DISTRICT 4: 
Jamita Swearengen, a longtime Democratic party activist, is the new District 4 council member, easily defeating Doris Deberry-Bradshaw.
With all 18 precincts reporting the results were:
Swearengen: 1,154
Bradshaw: 340

The unofficial results are audited and become official when they are certified by the Shelby County Election Commission.

The runoff elections are the last local elections of 2015.

The runoff provision applies only to single-member council districts in which no contender got a simple majority (50 percent plus one) of the votes cast in a race on the Oct. 8 ballot.

In that case the top two candidates in the vote totals advance to a runoff election.

It is unusual to have five runoff contests in Memphis elections. Usually there are one or two.