Tuesday's non-partisan elections were tough on DeKalb County Board of Education incumbents.

One lost his seat, one is a runoff, and the third barely beat back a challenger.

District 2 member Don McChesney lost to Marshall Orson, who got 62 percent of the vote to his 37.8 percent.

District 4 incumbent Paul Womack will face challenger Jim MacMahan in the Aug. 21 runoff. Womack got 46.6 percent of the vote and McMahan, 27.9 percent.

District 8 incumbent Dr. Pam Speaks beat back challenger Michelle Clark with 51.5 percent of the votes to Clark's 48.2 percent.

In the race for the open District 6 seat, Dr. Melvin Johnson and Denise E. McGill will face off in the runoff election.

Johnson led the four candidates with 39.4 percent of the votes. McGill came in second with 30.1 percent. LaTasha Walker got 20.2 percent and Dr. Terriyln Rivers Cannon got 10 percent of the votes.

DeKalb voters also rejected the non-binding advisory referendum on placing cell phone towers at schools, with 71,690 or 62 percent voting "no," versus 43,114 or 38 percent "yes" votes.

District 5 board member Jay Cunningham was philosophical about the result.

"The people have spoken," he said.

Jennifer Ffrench Parker contributed to this report.