Petition seeks new vote on Doraville annexation question

A Doraville voter and poll worker has filed a petition in DeKalb Superior Court asking for another vote on whether the northern DeKalb city should add three county neighborhoods to its borders, citing voting problems.

Some of the mailed absentee ballots did not include the question, and it also was not on Election Day screens in at least one precinct, according to the complaint from Eleanor Crane.

A retired teacher who worked at the Oakcliff precinct on Election Day, Crane said she saw firsthand how the question was not on the voting machines in her precinct, a problem that election officials corrected by providing a paper ballot.

“With it not on the screen that day, I don’t think it had much of a chance,” she said.

The annexation, which appeared to have succeeded at first, failed by 34 votes out of 1,138 cast, according to the final election results from the county election office.

Election officials said Friday that they were not aware of the petition and could not address the next step without seeing it.

“We cannot comment,” said Maxine Daniels, the assistant director of the elections office.

Election officials admit they had mistakenly left the issue off ballots but said they worked quickly to fix their error. They sent people who voted by absentee ballot a separate optical scan sheet with the referendum question on it, as well as a stamped envelope to mail back the ballot at no cost.

Those same sheets were available on Election Day.

Under the proposal, Doraville would have absorbed Cherokee Hills, Oakcliff Estates and Sequoyah Woods, expanding its borders up to the new city of Dunwoody and boosting its population by about 65 percent, to 17,000 residents.

Doraville leaders supported the annexation but did not campaign in favor of it. On Monday, the City Council will decide whether to adopt a resolution supporting Crane’s petition.

That election could be Dec. 2, when polls open statewide for a runoff, said Doraville Mayor Ray Jenkins.