The day after last month's primary, Republicans Barry Loudermilk and Bob Barr were announced as the two surviving runoff candidates in the race for the 11th District seat of U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey.
Loudermilk, a Bartow County resident, turned in a strong, 37 percent performance compared to 26 percent for Barr, a resident of Smyrna.
As reported the next day by both the AJC and the Marietta Daily Journal, the one statistical bit of good news for Barr was that he was able to hang on to his home county of Cobb. By 6,641 votes for the former congressman to 6,621 for Loudermilk. A thin margin of only 20 ballots, but still a victory.
Except that it wasn't. Those official results approved last week by Secretary of State Brian Kemp indicate that Loudermilk carried not just Cherokee and Bartow counties, but Cobb County as well – by 27 votes. The final Cobb tally was 6,768 votes for Loudermilk to 6,741 for Barr.
Somewhere along the line, Loudermilk picked 147 extra votes, while Barr picked up 100. Which sounded strange, so we called Janine Eveler, the elections guru for Cobb County.
Everler told us that six machines used at the county’s northern in-person, early voting station failed to download their results automatically. The results were uploaded manually, after the Tuesday primary.
And where was this northern outpost? NorthStar Church in Kennesaw.
It makes some sense. If you travel west Cobb, yard signs alone will tell you that Loudermilk was, and is, strong in the area.
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